A Federal High Court, Abuja, has dismissed the no-case submission by the suspended Director-General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Ishaq Modibbo Kawu.
In a ruling, the court held that Kawu has a case to answer.
The court ordered Kawu to open defence on his alleged involvement in the N2.5bn Digital Switch-Over (DSO) fraud.
Kawu, the late Chairman of Pinnacle Communications Limited, Lucky Omoluwa, and the Chief Operating Officer of the same company, Dipo Onifade, were jointly charged before Justice Folashade Ogunbanjo-Giwa, by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) for allegedly misapplying N2.5bn seed grant released to NBC by the federal government for the DSO project.
In a 12-count charge, Kawu is alleged to have engaged in abuse of office, money laundering and misleading a public officer with the intent to defraud the federal government, in contravention of Section 26 (1) (c) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000 and punishable under Section 19 of the same law.
Kawu, through his counsel, A. U. Mustapha (SAN) had submitted before the court in February, 2020 that he had no case to answer in the alleged fraud, praying the court to absolve him of the charge brought against him by ICPC.
Justice Ogunbanjo-Giwa had fixed the ruling on the no-case submission by Kawu on March 26, 2020, but for the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic which led to closure of courts.
The court, at the rescheduled sitting, held that ICPC had established a prima facie against Kawu, Onifade and Pinnacle Communications Limited and ruled that they had a case to answer.
However, Omoluwa was struck out from the charge after his counsel, Alex Iziyon (SAN) told the court of his death from heart failure, in February this year.
The trial judge, before adjourning the matter to July 1, 2020, also granted the prayers of ICPC to amend the charge by striking out the name of late Omoluwa.
