The All Progressives Congress governorship candidate in the forthcoming Bayelsa State governorship election, Timipre Sylva, has been cleared of the entire 50 counts of fraud preferred by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission against him by a Federal High Court in Abuja yesterday.
Justice Adeniyi Ademola in a ruling upheld the preliminary objection filed against the charges by Sylva and other co-accused.
Sylva a former Bayelsa governor had been charged over an alleged N20bn-fraud he was said to have perpetrated while in office as governor.
While dismissing the charges, the court held that the 50 counts constituted “complete abuse” of court process as they were exactly the same with the set of charges earlier dismissed by another judge of the Federal High Court in Abuja, Justice Ahmed Mohammed.
Justice Ademola also held that part of the charges were exactly the same set earlier withdrawn before yet another judge of the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court, Justice Evoh Chukwu.
According to him, “It is trite that what constitutes an abuse of court process includes instituting multiplicity of action on the same subject matter and the same parties even if they have legal rights to begin the action,”.