The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, today, June 12, 2015
\nfiled fresh corruption charges against a former governor of Bayelsa State,
\nTimipre Sylva, at the Federal High Court, Abuja.<\/p>\n
Sylva is charged alongside Francis Okokuro, Gbenga Balogun, and Samuel
\nOgbuku,. They allegedly used three companies \u2013 Marlin Maritime Limited,
\nEat Catering Services Limited, and Haloween-Blue Construction and
\nLogistics Limited to move about N19.2 billion from Bayelsa State coffers
\nbetween 2009 and 2012, under false pretence of using the withdrawn money
\nto augment salaries of the state government workers.<\/p>\n
The action of the anti-graft agency comes two days after Justice A. R.
\nMohammed of the Federal High Court dismissed the 42- count charge of
\nstealing brought against Sylva and his co-accused by the EFCC, with the
\nexcuse that the prosecution\u2019s application to consolidate the charges
\nagainst the defendants amounted to an abuse of court process.<\/p>\n
The Commission faulted the ruling on the ground that it was premature as
\nthe accused persons had not taken any plea before the court.<\/p>\n
The action of the trail judge stalled the move by the anti-graft agency to
\nconsolidate the charges against the former governor having, days earlier,
\nwithdrawn similar charges pending before Justice E.S. Chukwu of the same
\ncourt.<\/p>\n
The anti-graft agency awaits the assignment of the case, to pave way for
\nthe arraignment of Sylva and others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, today, June 12, 2015 filed fresh corruption charges against a former governor of Bayelsa State, Timipre Sylva, at the Federal High Court, Abuja.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39091,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n