- Femi Fani-Kayode acquitted of medical forgery charges by Lagos court after EFCC’s case collapses.
- Court rules EFCC failed to present sufficient evidence to link Fani-Kayode to the alleged offence.
- Fani-Kayode expresses relief after court victory, ending 18 years of legal battles.
Femi Fani-Kayode, a former Minister of Aviation, has been acquitted and discharged of medical forgery charges brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
EKO HOT BLOG reports that Justice Olubunmi Abike-Fadipe of the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos, freed the former minister on Tuesday, February 4, 2025, while delivering a ruling on the no-case submission filed by his counsel, Norrison Quakers (SAN).
Justice Abike-Fadipe ruled that the prosecution failed to establish a prima facie case against Fani-Kayode, stating that he had no case to answer as there was no evidence linking him to the alleged offence.
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The judge stated: *“The extrajudicial statements, which remain and are intended as evidence, cannot be used for any purpose other than to contradict the person who made the statement when he is in the witness box.
“I have carefully studied the evidence presented by the prosecution witnesses, and I cannot find where the defendant committed the offences alleged.
“The prosecution has failed to establish a prima facie case that would require the defendant to open his defence.”*
As a result, the judge acquitted and discharged the defendant.
Speaking to journalists after his discharge, Fani-Kayode expressed his relief, stating that he was overjoyed to finally be free after being in and out of court for 18 years.
The EFCC had filed a 12-count charge against the former minister, accusing him of using forged medical reports, which he allegedly presented before Justice Daniel Osiagor of the Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos. The charges were part of an ongoing prosecution for an alleged N4.9 billion fraud case.
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One of the counts read: “That you, Femi Fani-Kayode, on or about the 11th day of October 2021, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, fraudulently used a false document titled: ‘Medical Report on Olufemi Fani-Kayode, 60 Years/Male/Hosp. №00345 DATED 11/10/2021,’ before the Federal High Court, Lagos Judicial Division, in charge No. FHC/L/251C/2016, which you purported to have been issued by Kubwa General Hospital.”
The EFCC argued that procuring and executing documents by false pretense violated Section 369 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.
However, during the trial, the management of Kubwa General Hospital in Abuja denied ever admitting Fani-Kayode as a patient.
The hospital’s Head of Medical Records, Bassey Amah, also testified in court that the hospital did not issue the medical report presented by the ex-minister.
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