The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Lateef Fagbemi, has authorized senior lawyer Femi Falana to prosecute Leonard Stanley Ekeh, the chairman of Zinox Group, and his wife, Chioma, over allegations of fraudulently hijacking a government contract and embezzling over N162 million.
The case, which had been stalled for years, has been revived with this new directive, marking a significant development in a long-running legal battle. The fraud allegations involve the theft of a contract awarded to Citadel Oracle Concept Limited in 2012 to supply computers to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) headquarters.
Ekeh, according to the charges, allegedly opened a bank account in the name of Citadel Oracle and forged the signature of Citadel’s CEO, Benjamin Joseph, to illegally claim the contract’s funds. The crime was reported to the police under the then Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, but investigations were reportedly slow and ineffective. Joseph accused the police of colluding with Ekeh, given his influential status, to prevent any meaningful progress in the case.
In a controversial twist, the police charged Joseph with filing a false petition against the IGP, a charge that emerged just days before Arase’s retirement. This move effectively turned Joseph from the whistleblower into the accused, while Ekeh and other suspects were listed as prosecution witnesses in the case.
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