N2.9bn fraud: Court discharges Okorocha

“For the avoidance of doubt, the office of the AGF is founded on the provisions of the constitution and is thereby preserved.

“The controversies and drama surrounding this trial proceeding is needless and it is time to stop it,” Ekwo said.

The judge further held that from the moment the AGF gave the directive to the EFCC, the commission ceased to have the legal authority to prosecute or continue the prosecution of the case.

“In other words, the intervention of the AGF in any criminal proceeding ends the authority of the prosecuting agency in the matter unless otherwise directed by the AGF,” he said.

“In the end, I find that non-compliance by the respondent with the directive of the AGF as stated in Exhibit Okorocha 7 is fatal to this proceeding and has rendered it a nullity.

“The respondent is not empowered by any law to continue with this proceeding after the HAGF issued the directive in Exhibit Okorocha 7.

“With Exhibit Okorocha 7, it is only the HAGF that can decide whether or not to charge the defendants upon the case file being remitted to his office as directed.”

The judge also agreed with Okorocha’s submission that he cannot be made to stand trial considering the subsisting judgment (FHC/PH/FHR/165) of a federal high court in Port Harcourt delivered on December 6, 2021 which stopped his prosecution after faulting the probe process.

“The fact that a person refuses to comply with the law does not change the law, neither does the law change to accommodate the act of non-compliance by any person,” Ekwo said.

Okorocha was arraigned on a 17-count charge of money laundering to which he pleaded not guilty in May 2022.