By Bayo Wahab
Femi Fani-Kayode, a former Minister of Aviation, has been acquitted and discharged of the charge of medical forgery leveled against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Justice Olubunmi Abike-Fadipe of the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja,Lagos, freed the former minister on Tuesday, February 4, 2025, while delivering a ruling on the no-case submission filed by his counsel, Norrison Quakers (SAN).
Justice Abike-Fadipe held that the prosecution failed to establish a prima facie case against the ex-minister.
The judge said Fani-Kayode had no case to answer because the prosecution failed to link him to the offence.
The judge said, “The extrajudicial statements which remain, and are intended as evidence, cannot be used for any purpose other than to contradict the person who made the statement when he is in the witness box.
“I have carefully studied the evidence of the prosecution witnesses, and I cannot find where the defendant committed the offences being alleged.
“The prosecution has failed to establish a prima facie case which would require the defendant to open his defence.”
As a result, the judge acquitted and discharged the defendant on the alleged offences.
Speaking to journalists after his discharge, Fani-Kayode said he’s overjoyed that he’s finally free because he has been in and out of court for 18 years.
The EFCC had slammed a 12-count charge against the ex-minister following his alleged use of forged medical report(s), which he tendered before Justice Daniel Osiagor of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos. The anti-graft agency was prosecuting him for an alleged N4.9 billion fraud.
One of the counts reads: “That you, Femi Fani-Kayode, on or about the 11th day of October 2021 in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, by fraudulently used a false document titled: Medical Report on Olufemi Fani-Kayode 60 Years/Male/Hosp. №00345 DATED 11/10/2021 before the Federal High Court, Lagos Judicial Division in charge No. FHC/L/251C/2016 which document you purported to have been issued by Kubwa General Hospital.”
According to the EFCC, procuring and executing documents by false pretense contradicts section 369 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2015.
Meanwhile, during the trial, the management of Kubwa General Hospital, Abuja, denied admitting Fani-Kayode as one of its patients.
The hospital’s head of medical records, Bassey Amah, also testified before the court that the hospital did not issue the medical report the ex-minister presented.
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