A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Thursday dismissed a 50-count charge on alleged corruption against former governor of Bayelsa State, Timipre Sylva and six others.
In his ruling, Justice Adeniyi Ademola, held that the charges as filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission constituted an abuse of court process and the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the case.
He went further to note that the charges were “frivolous and lacking in merit’’.
Justice Ademola, specifically held that the same charges had been determined by two other justices of the federal high court, Justices Evoh Chukwu and Ahmed Mohammed.
He said Justices Chukwu and Mohammed had struck out the charges on June 1 and June 10 respectively.
“It is the view of the court that the case constitutes an abuse of court process.
“The charges and witnesses in this case are all the same with the cases earlier struck out by the two courts.
“The court has inherent power to prevent the abuse of its process,’’ he said.
The EFCC filed the 50-count charge against Mr. Sylva in June. Sylva is now the candidate of the All Progressives Congress for the Dec.5 Bayelsa governorship election.
Mr. Sylva was tried alongside Francis Okokuro, Gbenga Balogun and Samuel Ogbuku.
They were alleged to have defrauded Bayelsa to the tune of N19.2 billion.
The defendants were alleged to have withdrawn the fund under false pretence of using it to augment salaries of the state government workers
The offences were allegedly committed between 2009 and 2012 when Sylva was governor.
(NAN)
