An FCT High Court, Abuja, on Tuesday discharged and acquitted a former governor of Imo State, Ikedi Ohakim on a 3-count criminal charge filed against him by the Inspector General of Police (IGP).
The acquittal followed a withdrawal of the suit by the police.
The notice of discontinuance of charge No: CR/933/2020, dated March 12, 2021, was filed before the court by Rotshang Faith Dimka, legal counsel at the Force Headquarters, Abuja.
The notice reads: “Take notice that the complainant discontinues all of the proceedings in this case against Dr. Ikedi Ohakim with the consent of all the parties.”
Following the development, Ohakim was accordingly discharged and acquitted by the court.
It was gathered that the police authorities took the decision to discontinue with the case after it discovered that the charge was a malicious act against the defendant.
The Inspector General of Police had in the said charge accused Ohakim of giving false information against one Chinyere Amuchienwa.
Police alleged that the erstwhile governor lied that the lady threatened him with a gun, and equally made a false claim that he had a plot of land for sale in Lagos.
He was in count-3 of the charge, alleged to have unlawfully dropped the name of the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), as the owner of the purported land situated at Ikeja, Lagos state.
According to the charge that was signed by Police prosecutor, Stanley Nwodo, the former governor, committed an offence punishable under section 140 of the Penal Code Law of the Northern Nigeria, 1968.
The read: ”That you Ikedi Ohakim, on or about the 23rd day of May 2019 at Asokoro, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did unlawfully gave false information against one Chinyere Amuchienwa, that she threatened you with gun knowing it to be false and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 140 of the Penal Code Law of the Northern Nigeria, 1968.
“That you Ikedi Ohakim, on or about the 23rd day of May, 2019, at Asokoro, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did unlawfully gave false information against one Chinyere Amuchienwa, that you have a plot of land for sale at Lagos state, knowing it to be false and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 140 of the Penal Code Law of the Northern Nigeria, 1968.
“That you Ikedi Ohakim on or about the 23rd day of May 2019 at Asokoro, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did unlawfully used derogatory the name of Raji Fashola as the owner of the purported land situated at Ikeja, Lagos state and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 140 of the Penal Code Law of the Northern Nigeria, 1968”.
Before the matter was struck out, the former governor had pleaded not guilty.
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