Court throws out EFCC’s case against Okorocha

The High Court in Abuja on Friday, dismissed the he Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) case against the former Imo state governor, Rochas Okorocha.

Delivering judgment, Justice Yusuf Halilu, described the EFCC’s charges of fraud and abuse of office against Okorocha as an abuse of judicial process on the grounds that the anti-graft agency had filed a similar charge against the defendant at the Federal high court.

The EFCC alleged that the former governor laundered N2.9 billion during his tenure as governor from 2011 to 2019.

Okorocha had challenged the competency of the charge, arguing that there are subsisting orders restraining the commission from trying him with the same allegations.

He said a federal high court in Port Harcourt, on December 6, 2021, granted an application stopping his prosecution after faulting the process of investigation adopted by the agency.

Okorocha said since that order is still subsisting, the present charge by the EFCC is an abuse of prosecutorial powers and judicial process.

He also cited a ruling of an Abuja federal high court delivered in February 2023 which dismissed a similar suit filed by the commission.