A Federal High Court sitting in Dutse, Jigawa State, on Thursday, discharged and acquitted a former Governor of Jigawa State, Ibrahim Saminu Turaki of the N8.3 billion corruption charges levelled against him by the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
POLITICS NIGERIA reports that the presiding judge, Justice Hassan Dikko, who delivered the ruling, struck out all charges and discharged all the accused persons.
Turaki and three other companies had been standing trial since May 4, 2007.
The EFCC dragged Turaki and the companies to court over a 33-count charge bothering on diversification and misappropriation of state funds.
The former governor was arraigned by the EFCC before Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court on July 13, 2007.
In 2011, the case was, however, transferred to the Federal High Court, Dutse, after the former governor challenged the jurisdiction of the FCT division of the court.
A new judge, Justice Dikko, was reassigned to take over the case which was formerly being handled by Justice S. Yahuza before his retirement early in December.
Furthermore, Justice Dikko on Thursday ordered that Turaki’s travel documents be released to him with immediate effect.
