A Federal High Court siting in Abuja on February 14,
2014, Friday, discharged and acquitted a former Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, of any complicity in a 16-count charge brought
against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commissio (EFCC).
The former
Speaker was standing trial on a 16 criminal count charge of contract inflation
and fraudulent embezzlement of public funds.
The court,
presided over by Justice Evoh Stephen Chukwu, held that based on the
testimonies of the six witnesses called by the prosecution, the former Speaker
was not associated with any wrong doing in the processes leading to the award
of the said contracts to justify his being called to enter his defence in the
trial.
He further
held that the prosecution failed to prove the essential ingredients to justify
the charge where the former Speaker was alleged to have colluded with others as
covered by counts 3, 6, 9, 12, 13 and 14 of the charge, noting that collusion
connotes an agreement to commit a crime which was not shown by the prosecution
witnesses in their testimonies.
“From the totality of the six witnesses, nothing shows any act of
collusion on the part of the accused person. Nothing shows that he interfered
with the process of the award of the contracts. No mention about anybody
fronting for him was made by the prosecution witnesses and the process was also
said to have complied with the requirements. Based on the totality of these
witnesses’ testimonies, I hold that there is nothing to justify his being
called to enter his defence as none of the essential ingredients have been
proved by the prosecution,” the court
ruled.
The court
thereafter discharged and acquitted the former Speaker of all the charges.
This is the second time the former Speaker will be
discharged and acquitted having received similar verdict before an Abuja High
Court where he was arraigned for allegedly obtaining illegal loans totaling
about N9 billion for the House of Representatives while at the helm of
affairs.
No comments:
Post a Comment