Court acquits women arraigned over N5.7m fraud.

An Ikeja High Court on Friday discharged and acquitted two women, Beatrice Jemirin and Jumoke Adeyemi, accused of defrauding a publisher, Dele Agekameh of N5.7 million.

Jemirin, a livestock farmer, and Adeyemi, a frozen food seller, were arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on a 38-count charge of conspiracy and obtaining money by pretence.

The EFCC had alleged that the two women had conspired with Abiodun Adeyemi and Bukola Aluko both at large to defraud Agekameh, publisher of Capitol Magazine.

Delivering his judgment, Justice Joseph Oyewole held that the prosecution had failed to prove beyond reasonable doubts the substantive charge against the defendants.

Oyewole said the acts attributed to each of the defendants cannot be so linked to the alleged offence in issue as to be ascertained that they had common intention with the alleged fraudsters on the run in the absence of proof of guilty knowledge or fraudulent intent.

He noted that having found earlier that the counts of conspiracy are based on the same facts as the substantive counts and having also found that no common intention exists in the case that the counts of conspiracy must fail.

I, therefore, find each of the defendants not guilty in respect of each of the 38 counts in issue here and I accordingly discharge and acquit each of the defendants of the 38 counts alleged against them before this court,” the judge said.

The Prosecution Counsel, G.O. Adebola, had alleged that Abiodun Adeyemi, who was a Special Project Coordinator with Capitol Magazine, had collected a total of N5.7 million from the victim as cost of sending copies of the magazine abroad by courier.

He said the copies of the magazines and the courier costs were deposited with Jumoke Adeyemi to forward to her younger sister, Abiodun Adeyemi.

According to him, it was later discovered that she was not sending the magazines abroad but rather burning them at the residence of her friend, Jemirin.

The prosecutor told the court that the total cost of the magazines burnt were valued at N9 million, adding that before jumping bail, Abiodun had confessed that she was assisted in the act by Jemerin.