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Romanus Okoye
The Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos, on Friday struck out four of the 10 count charges filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC against Akwa Ibom State governor, Udom Emmanuel, Nigerian Bar Association, (NBA), President, Paul Usoro, SAN and two others over alleged N1.4 billion fraud.
Others mentioned in the charges include, Akwa Ibom State, Commissioner for Finance, Nsikan Nkan; Accountant-General of the state, Mfon Udomah; state Attorney-General, Uwemedimo Nwoko, and Margaret Ukpe.
Governor Emmanuel Udom was described in the charge as being “currently constitutionally immune from prosecution.”
Justice Rilwan Aikawa of the Federal High Court, Lagos, had on May 30, 2019, dismissed an application filed by Udom, seeking to quash the entire charge preferred against Usoro and other defendants by the EFCC. Justice Aikawa held then that Udom’s application lacked merit because he was not a party to the suit.
Dissatisfied with the ruling, Udom’s lawyer, Dr. Charles Mekwunye filed an appeal against the court’s decision.The Court of Appeal on Friday in an unanimous judgement read by Justice Bello Aliyu allowed the appeal filed by Udom against the ruling of the Federal High Court. The court subsequently nullified four of the 10 counts which particularly alluded to Governor Udom’s involvement in the alleged crime.
