Court dismisses criminal charge against Sylva
(Nigeria) A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Thursday
dismissed a 50-count charge bordering on alleged corruption against former
Bayelsa governor, Timipreye Sylva and six others.
Justice Adeniyi Ademola, in a ruling, held that the charges
as by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, constituted an abuse
of court process and the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the case.
He further held that the charges were ``frivolous and lacking
in merit’’.
Specifically, Ademola 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 that 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.
Ademola said rather than forum shopping and jumping from one
court to the other, the only option left for the prosecution was to file an
appeal.
EFCC had on June filed the 50-count charge against Sylva,
who is now the APC candidate for December 5, Bayelsa governorship election.
Sylva is standing trial alongside Francis Okokuro, Gbenga
Balogun and Samuel Ogbuku.
They were alleged to have used three companies and
co-defendants, Marlin Maritime Limited, Eat Catering Services Limited, and
Haloween-Blue Construction to defraud Bayelsa 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The defendants were alleged to have withdrawn the fund under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 the governor.
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