After years of his trial being in court, former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode has been discharged and acquitted of money laundering charges by a Federal High Court in Lagos.

Fani-Kayode’s trial commenced in 2008 before Justice Ramat Mohammed, when he was arraigned by the Economic Financial Crimes Commission.

He was alleged to have laundered about N100 million while serving as the Minister of Culture and Tourism as well as Aviation Minister.

On November 17, 2014, the laundered sum was reduced to N2.1million after Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia dismissed 38 out of the 40-count levelled against Fani-Kayode for lack of sufficient proof.

Fani-Kayode was judged on the two remaining counts on Wednesday, July 1. The EFCC prosecutor, Festus Keyamo, had urged the court to uphold the counts and convict the defendant.

Keyamo stated that the Director-General of the PDP Campaign Organisation had failed to exonerate himself of the allegations.

He argued that the object of the charge was that Fani-Kayode transacted in cash sums above N500,000, which was the threshold stipulated by the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act.

The Prosecutor stressed that Fani-Kayode had admitted making such transactions in his confessional statement of Dec. 22, 2008 made to the EFCC.

He said: “In this statement, he admitted that he transacted in cash above N500,000. My Lord, this statement went in without objection by the accused person and the statement was voluntary.”

“With the combination of this confessional statement and the statement of the IPO that investigated the allegation, we rely on all of this to submit that we have discharged our burden that monies were received by the accused person in cash and were not done through any financial institution.”

Ruling on the case, Ofili-Ajumogobia,​ said the charges brought against Fani-Kayode was feeble, adding that the EFCC failed to provide ‘copious evidence’ that linked him to actual acts of money laundering.