Court discharges acquits him over stealing
The Managing Director of Peak Petroleum Industries Nigeria Limited and a pastor in the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Dr. Ayodeji Oluokun, has paid the fine ordered against him and his firm by the Lagos special offences court, with respect to charges bordering on the issuance of dud cheques.
The trial judge, Oluwatoyin Taiwo, sitting in Ikeja, however, freed the defendants on the charges of stealing and obtaining by false pretence.
According to the judge, issuing dud cheques is a strict-liability offence in Nigeria, meaning that as long as the facts showed that the issued cheque was dishonoured for insufficient funds, however justifiable the circumstances, the fellow will be liable under the law.
The decision of the court arose from a charge filed against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) bordering on the offences, following the inability of the defendants to pay back a $ 1 million loan offered by a complainant firm known as GOSL.
Dr. Oluokun was sentenced to two years imprisonment with an option of an N2 million fine, while the firm was directed to pay, by way of restitution, the face value of the cheques issued to GOSL within 18 months and also ordered to pay a fine in the sum of N2 million, to which the defendants have reportedly complied.
The first defendant, Dr. Oluokun had approached GOSL for the loan of $ 1 million for working capital purposes, in his capacity as the Managing Director of Peak Petroleum.
Peak Petroleum had executed a Project Financing Agreement with foreign investors in furtherance of the project and was to repay the $ 1 million as soon as the funding was received.
It was basically on the strength of this legitimate expectation that GOSL loaned Peak Petroleum the funds, but the foreign investor defaulted, such that the funding was not received contrary to all expectations.
Consequently, GOSL commenced a civil action for the recovery of the loan but suddenly switched and activated a criminal proceeding via a petition to the EFCC because, according to GOSL, it was angered by the defence put forward in that civil suit.
The EFCC eventually filed a two-count charge marked ID/8509C/2018 on December 21, 2018, before Justice Taiwo against Oluokun and Peak Petroleum (as 1st and 2nd defendants, respectively) and they were first arraigned on January 21, 2019.
Following several amendments to the information, the defendants were re-arraigned on August 3, 2020, based on EFCC’s amended information dated July 30, 2020, but filed on August 3, 2020.
The amendment was mainly to introduce four additional counts, all bordering on alleged stealing and obtaining money by false pretence.
The defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Trial commenced on May 8, 2019, and was concluded on August 29, 2022.
Judgment was delivered on Tuesday, September 21, 2022.
In the Judgment, the court only upheld the allegations bordering on the issuance of dishonoured cheques in counts 1-2.
Issuance of cheques is usual in business transactions, and that the cheques may bounce is not unusual in business relations.
However, to check excesses by business entities, the Dishonoured Cheques (Offences) Act, Cap. D11, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 was passed to criminalise willful issuance of dud cheques.
In his defence and evidence, Oluokun furnished explanations as to why the cheques were dishonoured.
The defendants argued among other things that GOSL lodged the cheques before the agreed time and that the unexpected default by the funder in providing the agreed funding contributed to getting the cheques dishonoured.
But these explanations did not appear to move the Court, which took the opinion that the defendants were liable under the law.
The Court, however, dismissed the charges bordering on stealing and obtaining by false pretence, which are in counts three to six and set the defendants free on them.
