The Federal High Court sitting in Dutse, the Jigawa State capital in North-West Nigeria, has acquitted, former Governor of the state, Saminu Turaki of N8.3 billion fraud.
Turaki and three other companies have been on trial since 2007, on a 33-count corruption charge filed against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
The defendants were first arraigned before Justice Binta Nyako of the Abuja Division of the court, on July 13, 2007, but in 2011, the case was transferred to the Federal High Court in Dutse, after the former Governor challenged the jurisdiction of the court in Abuja to hear the matter.
The case was then assigned to Sabiu Yahuza, who later retired, and which caused the case to be reassigned to another judge, Hassan Dikko.
While delivering judgement on Thursday, Dikko struck out all charges and discharged all the accused persons for want of diligent prosecution.
The court also ordered that Turaki’s international passport and other travel documents be released to him with immediate effect.
