A former Governor of Imo State, Ikedi Ohakim has been discharged and acquitted by an Abuja High Court on a 3-count criminal charge preferred against him by the Inspector General of Police, Adamu Mohammed.
The acquittal followed a notice of discontinuance filed by the police in relation to the matter.
The notice of discontinuance of charge no: CR/933/2020 dated March 12, 2021, was filed before the court by Rotshang Faith Dimka, Legal Counsel, Legal/Prosecution Section, FCIID, Force Headquarters, Abuja.
Following the development, Ohakim was accordingly discharged and acquitted by the court as the charge was struck out.
The police boss had in the said charge accused the ex-governor of giving false information against one Chinyere Amuchienwa.
Before the matter was struck out, Ohakim had entered a plea of not guilty.
The police alleged that the erstwhile governor lied that the lady threatened him with a gun and equally made a false claim that he had a plot of land for sale in Lagos.
He was in count-three of the charge, alleged to have unlawfully dropped the name of the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, as the owner of the purported land situated at Ikeja, Lagos State.
According to the charge that was signed by the police prosecutor, Stanley Nwodo, the former governor, committed an offence punishable under Section 140 of the Penal Code Law of Northern Nigeria, 1968.
The charge reads: “That you Ikedi Ohakim, on or about the 23rd day of May 2019 at Asokoro, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court did unlawfully gave false information against one Chinyere Amuchienwa, that she threatened you with gun knowing it to be false and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 140 of the Penal Code Law of the Northern Nigeria, 1968.
“That you Ikedi Ohakim, on or about the 23rd day of May, 2019, at Asokoro, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court did unlawfully gave false information against one Chinyere Amuchienwa, that you have a plot of land for sale at Lagos State, knowing it to be false and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 140 of the Penal Code Law of the Northern Nigeria, 1968.
“That you Ikedi Ohakim on or about the 23rd day of May 2019 at Asokoro, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court did unlawfully used derogatory the name of Raji Fashola as the owner of the purported land situated at Ikeja, Lagos State and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 140 of the Penal Code Law of the Northern Nigeria, 1968.”
