The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, yesterday slammed fresh corruption charges against the immediate past governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Timipre Sylva, at the Federal High Court in Abuja. Sylva was in the suit charged alongside Francis Okokuro, Gbenga Balogun, and Samuel Ogbuku.
The anti-graft agency accused them of using three companies – Marlin Maritime Limited, Eat Catering Services Limited, and Haloween-Blue Construction and Logistics Limited to move about N19.2bn from Bayelsa state coffers between 2009 and 2012, under guise of using the withdrawn money to augment salaries of the state government workers.
This is coming two days after Ahmed R Mohammed of the federal high court dismissed the 42-count charge of stealing brought against Sylva and his co-accused by the EFCC, with the excuse that the prosecution’s application to
consolidate the charges against the defendants amounted to an abuse of court process.
The commission faulted the ruling on the grounds that it was premature, as the accused persons had not taken any plea before the court.
Spokesman of the EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, noted in the statement that, “The action of the trial judge stalled the
move by the anti-graft agency to consolidate the charges against the former governor, having, days earlier, withdrawn similar charges pending before Justice ES Chukwu of the same court.
“The anti-graft agency awaits the assignment of the case, to pave way for the arraignment of Sylva and others,” he said.
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