 |
| Babalakin |
In
a demonstrable reflection of the acute irony of the charges against Dr. B. O.
Babalakin, he only met his alleged co-conspirator, Mr. Okoh, in court today.
While the charges were being read in court, Dr. Babalakin turned to Mr. Okoh
and said, “I am alleged to have conspired with you but I have never met you in
my life”. MrOkoh replied that he was alarmed by the charges as he had also not
met Dr. B. O. Babalakin in his life. Dr. Babalakin then said to Mr. Okoh that
even though the circumstances are inauspicious it was nice to meet him.
In
court today it also became clear that the charges against Dr. Babalakin were
for a total figure of N1.3b, contrary to the figure of N3.4b – N4.7b peddled by
the press. The jam packed hall was taken aback by the quantum of money involved
in the allegations. Those who are close to Dr. Babalakin expressed the view
that it was very unlikely that Dr. B. O. Babalakin could be involved in such a
transaction. The extent of his business made an allegation that he laundered
such money at best ironical if not hilarious.
On
further discussion with lawyers who had read the charges, it appears that it is
simply replete with summations and fabrication. One of the counsel, a Mr.
Kehinde Daodu claimed that there was no link between the transaction and Dr. B.
O. Babalakin. The prosecution simply imagined that Dr. B. O. Babalakin could be
a benefactor of certain politicians and then assumed that such benefit could
only come from the resources of a State as in this case, Delta State. There was
no allegation that Dr. Babalakin’s companies benefitted from an inflated
contract or did not perform the contract that he was alleged to have won. On
the contrary the prosecution stated clearly that the contracts were completed.
This
case is bound to open a new vista in Nigerian jurisprudence as the entire gamut
of charges appear to be formulated to only embarrass a prominent citizen whom the
court promptly released on bail on self-recognition and that it was not done
for the purpose of punishing any crime as none was committed.
No comments:
Post a Comment