By Ayo Yusuf
For the third time in three years, a former Imo State governor, Senator Rochas Okorocha has been freed by a Nigerian court on charges of fraud and corruption allegedly committed while he was the state governor between 2011 and 2019.
A Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court sitting in Abuja on Friday, became the third court to dismiss the case against Mr. Okorocha, brought by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
While discharging the former governor of all charges, the presiding judge, Justice Yusuf Halilu, said the action of the anti-graft agency was a gross abuse of the judicial process.
Justice Halilu held that it was wrong for the EFCC to bring a suit that has already been decided by a court of coordinate jurisdiction, especially when there was an order of court restraining the anti-graft agency from prosecuting Okorocha over the outcome of an investigation that has been nullified by the court.
The judge noted that the action of the EFCC in going ahead and filing the same suit in three different courtsamounted to nothing more than court abuse.
Justice Halilu who admitted that the agency by law is conferred with a wide range of investigatory and prosecutorial powers, said however that the commission must learn to operate within the law, adding that the EFCC, being a creation of the law, must be a respecter of the law.
The court noted that the evidence before it showed that a Federal High Court had in 2021 freed Okorocha from fraud and corruption charges brought against him by the EFCC.
He remarked that while the commission did the right thing by appealing the judgement, it ought not to have approached another court of coordinate jurisdiction to file a similar charge against Okorocha.
It would be recalled that operatives of the EFCC arrested the former governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, after over six hours of a siege at his house on May 23 2024.
He was arrested on Tuesday evening at about 6:30 p.m. at his residence in the Maitama area of Abuja minutes after security operatives fired teargas to disperse protesters who did not want the ex-governor arrested.
Mr Okorocha was then whisked away in a white Hilux vehicle by armed security operatives.
Dozens of protesters had stormed Rochas Okorocha’s Abuja home to protest the security siege of the former governor’s house.
The EFCC, in a statement by its spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, said the siege was necessary because Mr. Okorocha had jumped an administrative bail and resisted being served court papers for his corruption trial.
“EFCC had on January 24, 2022, filed a 17-count criminal charge bordering on diversion of public funds and properties to the tune of N2.9billion against Okorocha,” Mr Uwujaren said he n the statement.
“The case was assigned to Honourable Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja but attempts to arraign Senator Okorocha were twice stalled owing to the absence of the ex-governor who evaded service of processes.
“In the circumstances, the Commission is left with no option than to effect the arrest of Senator Okorocha and bring him to trial.”
Three Times Lucky
The ruling by the Abuja High Court made it the third time in equal number of years that Mr. Okorocha has been freed by courts in respect of fraud committed during his tenure as Imo governor.
The New Diplomat recalls that Justice Stephen Pam of the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt had in a 2021 judgment, quashed the EFCC charge against Okorocha after it declared as illegal, unlawful, null and void the investigation upon which the charge was based.
The judge subsequently prohibited EFCC from further prosecuting the former governor over any alleged offence relating to the said investigation.
However, on May 24, 2022, the commission arrested Okorocha after a long siege at his Abuja residence and subsequently arraigned him and six others before the Federal High Court in Abuja.
They were alleged to have embezzled the sum of N2.9 billion belonging to the Government of Imo State.
However, Justice Inyang Ekwo, in a ruling delivered on February 6, struck out the charges for contravening Section 105 (3) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015, which gives the Attorney-General of the Federation the power to recall a case.
Justice Ekwo held that the directive of the AGF in a letter dated September 12, 2022, to EFCC to forward the case file with its comments on the issues for consideration and review was binding on the commission.
The court agreed with Okorocha that the earlier judgement of a court of coordinate jurisdiction sitting in Port Harcourt in suit number FHC/PH/FHR/165 between him and EFCC restraining the agency from further proceeding on the alleged offence subsists.
Dissatisfied, the commission approached the High Court of the FCT and filed another set of charges against the former governor.
But Okorocha, through his lawyer, Chief Ola Olanipekun, SAN, challenged the competency of the charge in an application, claiming it was an abuse of court processes.
Delivering his ruling in the application on Friday, Justice Halilu held that it was a gross abuse of court process for the EFCC to bring a suit that has twice been decided by different courts.
