TheCable

Nine days after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) dropped N2.45 billion charges against Timipre Sylva, former governor of Bayelsa state, a federal high court in Abuja has dismissed another N19.2 billion corruption charge against him.

The ‎ruling brought to an end all the charges that the commission had against Sylva.

In her ruling on Wednesday, Ahmed Mohammed, the presiding judge, described the charge as an abuse of court process because the charges were based on the same set of transactions involved in the N2.45bn charges.

Sylva was arraigned with Nide Francis Okonkwo, Gbenga Balogun and Samuel Ogbuku for allegedly siphoning money from the state.

They were also accused of using three companies – Marlin Maritime Limited, Eat Catering Services Limited and Haloween Blue Construction and Logistics Limited – in looting the state treasury between 2009 and 2012 when Sylva was governor.

Sylva was first elected governor of Ex-president Goodluck Jonathan’s state in 2007. However, the victory was nullified by the court in 2008. He contested a fresh election and won again, but after he fell out with Jonathan, he was not nominated by the peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to seek re-election.

In April 2015, he was appointed to represent the incoming administration of Muhammadu Buhari in the inauguration committee that ushered in the new government on May 29, co-chairing the committee with Anyim Pius Anyim, then secretary to the government of the federation who represented the Jonathan administration.