Finally, Court Acquits Late Lucky Omoluwa

Until his death, the founder and Chairman of Pinnacle Communications Limited, the late Lucky Omoluwa, was a shrewd businessman who succeeded where many others failed.

Omoluwa, a Papal Knight of St. Sylvester, was also a free giver who used his wealth to better the lives of the blind, widows, physically challenged children and orphans. He also generously supported education at all levels. It was in line with this that he set up the Centagon School Ltd. and Tarmac Works Limited.

As chairman of Pinnacle Communication Limited, he brought a positive revolution to the broadcast engineering industry in Nigeria whilst representing Harris Corporation, the largest manufacturer of radio and television transmitters in the world. This made it easy for the communication outfit to beat others to win a carrier licence, Broadcasting Signal Distribution (BSD), made available by the federal government for the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting.

However, the breakthrough could best be described as regret of some sort for the Edo State-born businessman as some elements that were allegedly envious of his rise used this to tarnish his reputation.

He, alongside his friend and business partner, the former Director-General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Ishaq Kawu, was accused of  N2.5billion corruption charge. They were dragged to a Federal High Court in Abuja.

Those who knew the man beat their chest that this could be a mistake or a mix-up somewhere, vowing that Omoluwa has consistently chosen the path of integrity. The matter dragged on for so long while he maintained his innocence until he gave up the ghost in 2020.

The late businessman is surely giving a winsome smile from the world beyond as his innocence was proven recently after he was discharged and acquitted of the charges by Justice Folashade Giwa-Ogunbanjo, who held that the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) failed to prove the allegations preferred against Omoluwa and the co-defendants.

ICPC had alleged that the former NBC director-general hoodwinked the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, to approve payment of N2.5 billion to Pinnacle Communications Limited, a private company owned by his friend, Omoluwa, who is the 3rd defendant.

According to the anti-graft agency, Omoluwa, whose firm was not qualified for such a grant, subsequently transferred the sum of N537.25 million out of the N2.5 billion to a Bureau de Change operator for the dollar equivalent. The BDC operator was said to have delivered the dollars in cash to the 3rd defendant (Omoluwa) at his residence in Kaduna.

Although the anti-corruption commission earlier filed a 12-count charge against the defendants, it was later amended to five counts.