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By Daniel Kanu
A former commissioner for finance in Abia State, Dr. Phillips Nto, has been cleared of corruption charges leveled against him by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other offences Commission (ICPC).
An Abia State High Court sitting in Umuahia presided over by Justice Thompson Adiele, Friday, held that Nto was not guilty of the three-count charge preferred against him by the prosecution.
He, therefore, gave the agency 48 hours to tender an apology in two national newspapers over what he called malicious arraignment in court.
ICPC had charged Nto, Consolidated Business Network and its managing director, lkechukwu Onu, for engaging in corrupt practice through the refund of excess charges on Abia State funds by the Keystone Bank.
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However, in his ruling, Justice Adiele held that the former commissioner was not found guilty of engaging in corrupt practice as outlined in count one, while charge two which bordered on conspiracy to confer undue corrupt advantage on an associate, was not tenable since it could not be proved that the second and third defendants were associates of Dr. Phillips Nto.
On the third count of making false statement to former Abia State government on the amount recovered from Keystone Bank as excess charges on the government’s money, the court held that the former com- missioner was not guilty because the signatures on the contentious documents were forged.
The judge held that a handwriting expert had testified in court that letters said to be written by the former commissioner engaging the consultant and authorising Keystone Bank to pay them money were forged.
He said the signature expert confirmed that those letters were not signed by Dr. Nto and therefore, the former commissioner could not have engaged in corrupt practice.
The court, however, ordered that both the second and third defendants should pay back the sum of N550 million to Abia State government within 30 days of the judgment, adding that it was wrong for them to have collected N700 million from Keystone Bank only to pay a paltry N150m to government in the name of commission.
