A Lagos high court has discharged and acquitted Michael Adenuga, a former accountant of Chevron, the oil company, of fraud and forgery allegations.
In 2024, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arraigned the defendant and Covenant Apartments Complex Limited, his company, on a three-count charge bordering on fraudulent conversion of land, forgery of documents and use of false documents.
According to the charge marked ID/494C/14, Adenuga and his company allegedly converted landed property measuring about 22.687 hectares, valued at N5 billion, for personal use after it had been purchased in partnership with Sunday Oyeniran and Joseph Oyeniran under the name of another company.
The EFCC alleged that the defendants fraudulently converted the land situated at Aiyetoro, Ikota, Lekki Peninsula, beside Victoria Garden City, between September 2011 and February 2014.
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The prosecution also charged Adenuga with forging a contract of sale document that purportedly showed his company, Covenant Apartments Complex Limited, sold the land to Kingview Realty.
The third charge claimed that Adenuga also presented the alleged forged document to EFCC as a genuine document.
On Tuesday, Sedoten Ogunsanya, the judge, made a final ruling on the case after 11 years of trial.
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The judge ruled that the prosecution failed to prove its case against the defendants beyond a reasonable doubt.
Ogunsaya added that the prosecution has no adequate documentation to prove that the disputed land was owned by any individual other than the defendant.
“There were a lot of conjectures in the case of the prosecution. The prosecution failed to establish that the disputed document was made with fraudulent intent,” the judge ruled.
“The prosecution is unable to prove beyond a reasonable doubt to this court all the charges against the defendant.
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“The court finds the defendant not guilty and hereby discharged and acquitted.”
