A federal high court sitting in Dutse, Jigawa state, has acquitted Saminu Turaki, former governor of the state, of the N36 billion fraud charges.
The corruption charge was preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Turaki, a former Governor of Jigawa State and 3 Companies have been standing trial since May 4, 2007.
The EFCC dragged the duo to court over a 32-count charge bothering on diversification and misappropriation of state funds.
He was arraigned by the EFCC before Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal Capital Territory High Court on July 13, 2007.
In 2011, the case was, however, transferred to the Federal High Court, Dutse, after the former governor challenged the jurisdiction of the FCT division of the court.
A new judge, Justice Hassan Dikko, was reassigned to take over the case which was formerly being handled by Justice S. Yahuza before his retirement early in December.
The trial judge, Hassan Dikko, struck out the case over lack of diligence prosecution by the prosecutor, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Turaki appeared at the court Thursday morning to face the 32-count corruption charge filed against him and his co-defendants 14 years ago.
The prosecution counsel was absent during Thursday’s session.
The defense counsel, Michael Aondoakaa, pleaded with the court to strike out the case against the first defendant (Mr. Turaki) for lack of diligent prosecution since neither the prosecution counsel nor the witness was in court on Thursday when the matter came up.
Mr. Aondoakaa, a former minister of justice and attorney-general of the federation, argued that the Thursday sitting was the sixth adjournment since the case was brought before the court and the EFCC has neither appeared nor given reasons for its absence.
The defense counsel pleaded with the court to strike out the charges against the former governor because the prosecution was not ready to proceed with the case.
The judge, Mr. Dikko, in his ruling, struck out the case and discharged the first defendant, Mr. Turaki, and ordered the prosecution (the EFCC) to do the needful when they are ready to proceed with the case.
The EFCC’s spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, told newsmen that the anti-corruption agency will study the court ruling before it will come out with a definite stance on the case against the former governor.
Turaki, who served a two-term as governor of Jigawa from 1999 to 2007, was first arraigned by the EFCC before Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja on 13 July 2007 on a 32-count charge of misappropriating N36 billion while in office.
Following his arraignment, he was granted bail in the sum of N100 million.
In 2011, the case was transferred to the Federal High Court, Dutse, after Turaki successfully challenged the territorial jurisdiction of the Federal High Court in Abuja to hear the case.
He was subsequently re-arraigned on the same 32-count charge at the Dutse Division of the Federal High Court.
Due to the repeated absence of Turaki from the court, the case was stalled for years, until he ran out of luck when EFCC arrested him on 4 July 2017 at an event in Abuja.
While the EFCC was trying to get a date for his trial before the court in Dutse, the annual vacation of Federal High Court judges started. EFCC was then confronted with the risk of holding the former governor in custody beyond the constitutionally permissible period.
Since he was arrested in Abuja, Turaki quickly filed a rights enforcement suit before the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, in Abuja, seeking to be released from the anti-graft agency’s custody.
The EFCC opposed the suit arguing that Mr. Turaki would again jump bail, based on his antecedence of jumping bail granted him by the Federal High Court in Dutse in 2011, and evading the arrest warrant subsequently issued by the same court.
Despite EFCC’s objection, Yusuf Halilu of the FCT High Court granted bail to the ex-governor on conditions that he should submit his traveling documents to the registry of the court, produce “two reasonable sureties” residing in Abuja, and routinely sign a register to be opened at the EFCC’s office every two weeks.
Reluctant to release Mr. Turaki as ordered by the court, EFCC quickly charged him at Federal High Court to the Abuja division, which was the only division a judge was appointed to entertain all urgent cases from the entire northern region.
Turaki pleaded not guilty to the 32 counts again and was again granted bail by the judge, Nnamdi Dimgba.
On 18 July 2017, the judge granted him bail in the sum of N500million with two sureties in the sum of N250million each.
Among other bail conditions, the judge directed Turaki to report to the EFCC’s headquarters on the first working day of every month.
The case was then transferred to the Dutse Division after Turaki met the bail conditions, and Dimgba signed the order for his release from custody.
Since then, the case has not made any progress due to Turaki’s repeated absence from court until today(Thursday) when the court struck out the case on the ground of lack of due diligence from the EFCC.
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