Court dismisses EFCC’s charge against Okorocha, faults process

The High Court of the Federal Capital Territory on Friday dismissed the case against the former governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

Delivering judgment, Justice Yusuf Halilu described the EFCC’s charges of fraud and abuse of office against Okorocha as an abuse of judicial process on the grounds that the agency filed a similar charge against the defendant at the Federal High Court.

The court faulted the EFCC for filing similar charges against a defendant in different courts, especially when a court of competent jurisdiction already ruled on the matter.

Justice Stephen Pam of the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt had in 2021 quashed the EFCC’s charge against Okorocha after the investigation upon which the charge was based was declared as unlawful, null and void.

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The judge had subsequently given an order prohibiting the EFCC from further prosecuting the former governor over any offence relating to the said investigation.

The commission on May 24, 2022, arrested Okorocha after over six hours of laying siege to his Abuja residence and subsequently arraigned him and six others before the Federal High Court in Abuja over alleged embezzlement of N2.9bn belonging to the Imo State government.

Besides, Justice Inyang Ekwo, in a ruling on February 6 struck out the charges for contravening section 105(3) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (2015), which gives the Attorney-General of the Federation the power to recall a case.

Among others, Ekwo held that the directive of the AGF in a letter dated September 12, 2022, to the EFCC to forward the case file with its comments on the issues for consideration and review was binding on the commission.

Dissatisfied, the commission approached a High Court in the FCT and instituted another set of charges against the former governor.

But Okorocha through his lawyer, Ola Olanipekun (SAN), in an application challenged the competence of the charge, claiming it was an abuse of court processes.

In his ruling on Friday, Halilu held that nothing more would describe abuse of court processes than the commission filing the same suit in three different courts.

While noting that the agency by law is conferred with a wide range of investigation and prosecutorial powers, the judge held that such powers must be exercised within the law, since the agency itself was a creation of the law.

While warning that nobody or agency was above the law, the court advised the anti-graft agency to accept that there must be an end to litigation.

“Once a case of abuse of court processes is established, the best thing to do is to dismiss the charge; the first defendant is hereby discharged,” the judge ruled.