- Dimeji Bankole with EFCC officials
An Abuja High Court has acquitted and discharged a former Speaker of House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole and his erstwhile Deputy, Usman Nafada, saying that the federal government was unable to establish a prima facie against the duo.
Presiding over the trial on Tuesday, Justice Suleiman Belgore ruled that the duo had no case to answer in connection with a N40 billion misappropriation charge.
He gave the verdict while ruling on a no-case submission made by Bankole and Nafada over a 17-count charge of criminal breach of public trust preferred against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Bankole and Nafada were accused of having approved loans that were not captured in the 2010 Appropriation Act.
Only last week, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had insisted that Bankole and Nafada had a case to answer.
The EFCC had made the application in response to the application for a no-case submission filed by counsel for the accused persons on the ground that the anti-graft agency had no sufficient evidence to prosecute their clients.
The accused persons were arraigned on June 13, 2011, on a 17 counts of criminal breach of trust, misappropriation and theft.
