A Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja has dismissed the ₦1 billion fraud case instituted against a contractor, Mutairu Babatunde, and two former MTN Nigeria employees, Victor Akintunde and Gani Mustapha.
Justice Ismaila Ijelu also discharged and acquitted their firms—Primavera Engineering and Construction Limited and Mabo Dredging Limited—after the nominal complainant, MTNN Employees Multipurpose Society Limited, formally notified the court that the dispute had been fully resolved.
The decision followed an affidavit jointly filed by defence counsel Olalekan Ojo (SAN) and G. M. Oguntade (SAN), indicating that all parties reached a comprehensive settlement on August 25, 2025.
The terms of the agreement were subsequently adopted in a civil suit before Justice Kudirat Jose of the Lagos High Court, Tapa, Lagos Island, culminating in a consent judgment delivered on September 17, 2025.
Ojo told the court that the complainant, through its solicitors, had written to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on August 29, 2025 requesting the withdrawal of the criminal charge on account of the settlement.
He added that the defence followed up with another letter to the EFCC on October 23, 2025 urging the Commission to halt the prosecution in compliance with the consent judgment. EFCC counsel, Babatunde Sonoiki, confirmed receipt of the affidavit and acknowledged that the agency had been duly informed of the settlement and was awaiting internal directives.
In his ruling, Justice Ijelu held that the prosecution had lost its foundation since the complainant no longer had a subsisting grievance “and had expressly requested discontinuance.” He noted that the civil dispute had been conclusively resolved, leaving no legal basis to sustain Charge No. ID/355/2013.
The judge described any attempt to continue the proceedings as futile, relying on decided authorities including FRN v. Ononye and PML Nig. Ltd. v. FRN (2017).
He consequently dismissed the charge and acquitted all defendants.
The court further ordered the immediate release of the passports of the first and second defendants, earlier deposited as part of their bail conditions.
Justice Ijelu directed the EFCC to hand over all movable and immovable properties seized from the defendants and to prepare a comprehensive, itemised account of all rents collected from the assets since 2013.
He ordered that the recovered rents be paid to the defendants after the accounting process, except where any asset is subject to a subsisting order from a court of coordinate jurisdiction.