The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says it will appeal the judgment which discharged and acquitted a former acting governor of Taraba State, Sani Danladi, of the N450 million fraud allegation against him.
The anti-corruption agency revealed this in a statement on Friday, two days after Justice Stephen Pam gave the ruling at a Federal High Court sitting in Jalingo, the state capital.
It said it had charged Danladi along with two others – Joel Ikenya and Mark Useni to court for alleged conspiracy and violation of financial regulations, based on its findings during an investigation.
The EFCC said they were alleged to have collected the said sum as part of monetary inducement, to influence the outcome of the general elections in 2015.
The statement read, “It is worth noting, that on January 25, 2019, the EFCC secured the conviction of two former staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), who were charged to court for similar offences.
“They were alleged to have partaken in the “sharing” of several sums of money, in the build-up to the general election, without going through a financial institution.”
The EFCC described the decision of Justice Pam to rule that the charges against Danladi and the others lacked merit as “worrisome and tragic”.
It explained that this informed its resolve to appeal the ruling, noting that the judgment was a “travesty of justice”.
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