A Federal High Court sitting in Lafia, Nasarawa State has ruled that former governor of the State, Aliyu Akwe Doma has a case to answer on corruption charges brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
EFCC’s Wilson Uwujaren said the commission told the presiding judge, Justice Marcel Awokulehin to strike out an application seeking to quash the charges againstMr Doma and six others standing trial on a 17 count of money laundering and stealing of state funds totalling over N15 billion.
“The other accused persons are Senator John Dangoyi, Abdulmumin Jibrin, Timothy Anthony Anjide, Dauda Egwa, Suleiman Ibrahim, Broworks Ltd and Green Forest Investment Ltd.” Uwujaren said.
“At the resumed hearing of the case on Monday, Prosecution counsel, Dele Adesina, SAN told the court that EFCC was opposing eight applications brought in by Doma and six other co-accused persons seeking to quash the case against them,” he added.
“Counsel to all the accused persons excluding the 4th and 8th accused persons, S.I Ameh, SAN, had earlier moved a motion to quash the charges preferred against them.”
Counsel to Doma and Abdulmumin Jibrin, Charles Edosonwan, had asked the court to discharge the accused persons because the prosecution did not disclose the element of crime in the charge.
However, EFCC’s Counsel argued that the accused persons’ counsel should have brought the application to quash the case before their plea was taken.
The judge, after ruling that Doma and his co-accused persons have a case to answer, adjourned the case till June 11th, 2012.