After eight years of being stalled by an interlocutory appeal finally dismissed by the Supreme Court on Friday, the trial of former Plateau State Governor, Joshua Dariye, for alleged corruption charges, will resume on March 24.
It was learnt on Sunday that prosecution is to call its first witness on March 24 which had already been scheduled before the Supreme Court judgment on Friday.
Dariye is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission before Justice Adebukola Banjoko of a Federal Capital Territory High Court in Gudu, Abuja.
The EFCC had, on July 13, 2007, arraigned the former governor on 23 counts of money laundering and other corruption charges allegedly involving “billions of Naira” belonging to the Plateau State Government.
The EFCC accused the former governor of, among others, diversion of about N1.2bn of the state’s ecological funds into the account of Ebenezer Ratnen Venture, which is one the companies through which he allegedly siphoned the public funds.
Justice Sylvester Ngwuta who delivered the lead judgment on Friday, paving the way for the trial to resume, described the scenario played out in the entire case as a “sad commentary” on the nation’s fight against corruption.
In an unanimous judgment by the five-man panel, the court ordered the accused to return to the Federal Capital Territory High Court to face his trial.
The Supreme Court described as unmeritorious Dariye’s appeal against the earlier decision of the Court of Appeal, Abuja on his preliminary objection challenging the competence of the charges instituted against him and the jurisdiction of the FCT High Court to entertain the suit.
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