The Federal Capital Territory(FCT) High Court on Friday discharged Senator Rochas Okorocha from corruption charges filed against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission ((EFCC).
Justice Yusuf Halilu freed the former Imo governor after dismissing the charges filed by the anti-graft agency for being an abuse of the court process.
This is the third time courts have freed Mr Okorocha in respect of alleged fraud and corruption said “to have been committed while he was the governor of the state from 2011 to 2019.’’
Mr Halilu held that it was wrong for the EFCC to continue to file similar charges against a defendant in different courts when a court of competent jurisdiction had already given a verdict.
Justice Stephen Pam of the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt had, in a judgment in 2021, dismissed the EFCC’s charge against Mr Okorocha.
The judge made an order prohibiting the EFCC from further prosecuting the former governor over any alleged offence relating to the said investigation.
However, on May 24, 2022, the commission laid siege on Mr Okorocha’s residence in Abuja, arrested him and subsequently arraigned him and six others.
They were alleged to have embezzled N2.9 billion belonging to the government of Imo.
Justice Inyang Ekwo, in a ruling delivered on February 6, struck out the charge for contravening section 105 (3) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015.
Dissatisfied, the commission approached the High Court of the FCT and filed another set of charges against the former governor.
But Mr Okorocha, through his lawyer, Ola Olanipekun, SAN, in an application, challenged the competence of the charge, claiming it was an abuse of the court process.
Delivering a ruling in the application on Friday, Justice Halilu held that it was wrong for the EFCC to bring a suit that a court of coordinate jurisdiction had already decided.
The judge said this was especially so as there was an order of the court restraining the anti-graft agency from prosecuting Okorocha over the outcome of an investigation which had been nullified by the court.
The judge said there was nothing more that described an abuse of court than the commission’s action by going ahead to file the same suit in three different courts.
He said that although by law, the EFCC was conferred with a wide range of investigatory and prosecutorial powers; it must learn to operate within the ambit of the law.
The judge added that the EFCC being a creation of law, must be a respecter of the same law.
The judge said nobody or agency was above the law and advised the EFCC to accept that litigation must end.
(NAN)