LAGOS—A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, has thrown out a fraud charge against Chairman of Zinox Technologies, Mr. Leo Stan Ekeh, his wife, Chioma Ekeh and 11 others.
Trial judge, Justice Akpan Okon Ebong, who struck out the case by Mr. Femi Falana SAN, purporting to act on a fiat donated to him by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Mr. Lateef Fagbemi SAN, against the Chairman of Zinox Technologies, Mr. Leo Stan Ekeh, and 12 others.
The other defendants were Mr. Chris Ozims, Oyebode Folashade, Charles Adigwe, Obilo Onuoha, Agartha Ukoha, Anya O. Anya, Femi Dosumu, Nnenna Kalu, Admas Digital Technologies Limited, Technology Distributions Limited and Zinox Technologies Limited.
In charge FCT/HC/CR/985/24 filed in November 2024, Falana on behalf of his client, Benjamin Joseph, the Chief Executive Officer, CEO of Citadel Oracle Concept Limited, an Ibadan-based computer firm, against Ekeh, nine other individuals and three companies had alleged diverting N162,247,513.80 being payment for laptop supply contract at the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, Headquarters, which Technology Distribution Ltd (now TD Africa), the biggest tech equipment distributor in Sub Saharan Africa supplied on behalf of Citadel in 2012.
Justice Ebong in the March 20, 2025, judgment, held: “It is my conclusion based on the foregoing that this charge (No. FCT/HC/CR/985/2024, Federal Republic of Nigeria v Leo Stan Ekeh and 12 Ors) constitutes a gross abuse of court process and is liable to dismissal. I accordingly hereby dismiss it.”
Before arriving at his judgment in the case other courts had dismissed in the past as dead on arrival, Justice Ebong had considered the outcome of previous cases and petitions filed by Mr. Joseph none of which was in his favour.
Justice Ebong said: “One intriguing aspect of this matter is that none of the law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation of the nominal complainant’s (Mr. Joseph) numerous petitions has found merit in any of his allegations against the defendants. When called upon before Senchi J. (Justice Danlami Senchi) to prove his said allegations to the court, he failed to turn up in court. One then wonders on what premise he wants to maintain this campaign of persecution against the defendants.”
Previous judgments on the matter had established that rather than being the culprit, Ekeh and the 12 others were actually the victims of a failed money diversion scheme plotted by Mr. Joseph and Citadel.
When contacted, one of the defendants, Mr. Chris Ozims, a lawyer, said: “This ruling truly reflects our consistent position on the allegations, and it is good that we have been vindicated, once more, by a competent high court.”
He asserted that the judgment of Justice Ebong was consistent with the position of the defendants and in tandem with the ruling of other judges, who had earlier adjudicated on the same matter in the past.
Chief counsel to the defendants, Mr. Matthew Burkaa, SAN, described the judgment as victory for integrity and the rule of law.
Court papers showed that Falana’s suit was based on the same claims which various courts had in the past dismissed as falsehood and baseless.
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