Court acquits Chinese directors, Nigerian on criminal charges

Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Wednesday, discharged and acquitted two Chinese and a Nigerian on forgery and fraud charges.

The Nigeria Police Force arraigned Hao Aijun, Liu Yangxi, and the Nigerian, Obi Anthony-Chibuzor, on a 13-count charge of conspiracy, forgery and fraud in 2017.

The defendants who were directors of BN Ceramics Industry Nigeria Limited were accused of forging the company’s board’s resolutions, among others in the charge marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/77/2017.

They, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The defendants later made a no-case submission which was partially upheld by Justice Dimgba who struck out of eight out of the 13 counts.

In Wednesday’s proceeding, the judge upheld the arguments of the defence counsel, Akinlolu Kehinde (SAN), that the prosecution failed to prove its case.

READ ALSO: N50m bribe: Appeal Court jails Chinese nationals six years

He declared that the testimonies of the prosecution witnesses did not link the defendants with any act of forgery.

He consequently discharged and acquitted the defendants on the charges.

Dimgba said: “Even the testimony of the handwriting experts and the reports of their findings as manifested in Exhibits HA4, HA5, HA11, and HA13, did not link the defendants to the document, the signature of the PW1 said to have been forged.

“Consequent on the above, I hereby find the defendants not guilty of the charges preferred against them.

“I hold that the prosecution has failed to prove the offence of conspiracy against the defendants by the standard required by law, which is beyond a reasonable doubt.”

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