For the second time, the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice has withdrawn the fiat donated to Femi Falana SAN, purporting to prosecute a case against Mr. Leo Stan Ekeh, Chairman of Zinox Technologies, and 12 others.

The case, which has dragged on for many years, arose from a transaction about 13 years ago between Citadel Oracle Concept Limited, an Ibadan-based computer firm owned by an Enugu state indigene, Mr. Benjamin Joseph, and Technology Distributions Limited over the supply of computers to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), a project in which Technology Distributions fully extended credit to Citadel and which has no bearing whatsoever with Zinox and its promoter, Mr. Leo Stan Ekeh.

In the latest development, the current AGF, Mr. Lateef Fagbemi SAN, in a letter dated 2nd May 2025, addressed to The Principal Partner, Falana and Falana Chambers, and signed by Mr. M. B. Abubakar, Director, Public Prosecutions of the Federation, directed Falana to withdraw Charge No: FCT/HC/CR/985/2024 (FRN. v. Leo Stan and 12 others), in the interest of justice; signifying that the fiat ought not to have been donated to him in the first place.

The letter titled: Withdrawal of Authorization Under Section 174 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as Amended, reads: ?I am directed to write in reference to the above caption and to inform you that the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice in exercise of the power conferred upon him by section 174 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as amended and section 106 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, has withdrawn the fiat earlier granted to you dated 20th December 2023 to prosecute the case mentioned below at the expense of the nominal complainant Mr. Joseph Benjamin: FRG V. Chris Eze Ozims and 6 others, Charge No: CR/827/2013.

?You are, accordingly, requested to withdraw Charge No: FCT/HC/CR/985/2024 between FRN v. Leo Stan Ekeh and 12 others in the interest of justice.?

The Director, Public Prosecutions of the Federation, conveyed the message of the withdrawal to the chamber of Matthew Burkka & Co., chief counsel to the defendants, via a letter dated 6th May 2025. The letter read inter alia: ?You may wish to refer to the above-mentioned subject matter and be informed that the office of the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation is in receipt of your letters dated 24th December, 2024, 27th March 2025 and 10th April 2025 respectively, requesting for the withdrawal of the fiat donated to Messrs. Femi Falana SAN dated 20th December 2023.

?I am to inform you that after a consideration of your request, the facts and circumstances of the case, the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation has withdrawn the fiat donated to Messrs. Femi Falana SAN, dated 20th December 2023 vide a letter dated 2nd May, 2025.?

It would be recalled that the former AGF and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami SAN, had in a letter dated 28th October 2022, withdrawn a similar fiat that was donated to Femi Falana, upon his own application, on the same set of facts and allegations. Based on the withdrawal, the charges filed by Falana, pursuant to the fiat, were struck out by two justices of the FCT High Court, Abuja (Honourable Justice Christopher O. Oba, and Honourable Justice Ade. S. Adepoju)

However, upon the appointment of the current AGF and Minister of Justice, Femi Falana, again applied and got a fiat with which he filed a new case: Charge No: FCT/HC/CR/985/2024 between FRN.v. Leo Stan and 12 others, still on the same set of facts and allegations. But upon a further review of the file at the Ministry of Justice, the AGF and Minister of Justice came to the conclusion that ?in the interest of justice? the fiat and the Charges filed pursuant to it should be withdrawn.

Recall that this case and its adjunct suits had been dismissed three times by three different courts. The latest dismissal was on 20th March 2025 by Justice Akpan Okon Ebong of the FCT High Court who struck out the case filed by Mr. Femi Falana SAN, against the Chairman of Zinox Technologies, Mr. Leo Stan Ekeh, and 12 others, based on the fiat (that has now been withdrawn from him.)

The other defendants, who were discharged and acquitted upon the dismissal of the Charges by the courts, are Mr. Chris Eze Ozims, Oyebode Folashade, Charles Adigwe, Obilo Onuoha, Agartha Ukoha, Anya O. Anya, Femi Dosumu, Nnenna Kalu, Admas Digital Technologies Limited, Technology Distributions Limited and Zinox Technologies Limited.

The suit No. FCT/HC/CR/985/24 filed in November 2024 by Falana on behalf of his client, Benjamin Joseph, before the Federal High Court in Abuja for the same alleged diversion of N162,247,513.80 being payment for laptop supply contract at FIRS Headquarters was dismissed.

In the certified true copy of the judgment dated 20th March, 2025, Justice Ebong ruled as follows: ?It is my conclusion based on the foregoing that this charge (No. FCT/HC/CR/985/2024, Federal Republic of Nigeria v Leo Stan Ekeh and 12 ORS) constitutes a gross abuse of court process and is liable to dismissal. I accordingly hereby dismiss it.?

Justice Ebong averred: ?One intriguing aspect of this matter is that none of the law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation of the nominal complainant?s (Mr. Joseph) numerous petitions has found merit in any of his allegations against the defendants. When called upon before Senchi J. (Justice Danlami Z. Senchi) to prove his said allegations to the court, he failed to turn up in court. One then wonders on what premise he wants to maintain this campaign of persecution against the defendants.?

Previous judgments on the matter had established that rather than being the culprit, Ekeh and the 12 others were actually the victims of a failed money diversion scheme plotted by Mr. Joseph and Citadel.

The most recent charges filed by Falana on the basis of a fiat from the Attorney General was the third in a row as Mr. Joseph had earlier filed charge no.CR/469/2022, which was struck out by Honorable Justice Christopher O. Oba of the FCT High Court, by an order dated 8th November 2022.

Justice Oba ruled: ?Upon hearing the counsel for both the Prosecution and the Defendants in court, the basis for which the law firm of Femi Falana filed the present charge is the authority gotten from the Attorney General of the Federation. The said authority has been withdrawn, there is legally no basis for the present charge before this court. Therefore, this charge is hereby struck out.?

Determined to push through his case, Mr Joseph filed the same charges before Honorable Justice Ade S. Adepoju of the FCT High Court, and the charges were, once again, struck out by the Honorable Court on 19th March 2024, with Honorable Justice Adepoju holding that: ?This matter was brought in dead, extinct and should be confined into the dustbin of history?I hold that the instant suit is an abuse of the process of court and it is hereby struck out accordingly.?

It will be recalled that in his petition to the police in 2013, it was discovered by police authorities that Mr. Joseph provided false information to the police, prompting the Inspector General of Police to charge him for false information in charge no.CR/216/16.

In another case filed by the EFCC, at his instance against his partner, Princess Kama, in charge no. FCT/HC/CR/244/2018, Honorable Justice Danlami Z. Senchi of the FCT High Court (as he then was), dismissed as false all the allegations made by Benjamin Joseph, and imposed the sum of N20 million as damages against him for false petitioning in relation to these same allegations.

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