By Ikechukwu Nnochiri

ABUJA—Former Governor of Bayelsa State, Mr. Timipre Sylva, yesterday, challenged the fresh 50-count charge preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

Sylva, through his counsel, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, also challenged the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court, Abuja, to entertain the charge which he said was bereft of substance.

*Sylva

He urged the trial judge, Justice Ademola Adeniyi, to hands-off the matter, even as he accused the anti-graft agency of engaging in flagrant abuse of the judicial process by re-filing the charge which he said was predicated on the same material facts, evidence and circumstance as the previous one that was dismissed by Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the same court.

Sylva is, in the charge, alleged to have connived with three others, Francis Okokuro, Gbenga Balogun and Samuel Ogbuku, to siphon over N19.2 billion from the Bayelsa State treasury between 2009 and 2012.

Three companies that were allegedly used to perpetuate the fraud, Marlin Maritime Limited, Eat Catering Services Limited and Haloween-Blue Construction and Logistics Limited, were equally joined as defendants in the matter.

It will be recalled that Justice Mohammed had on June 10, dismissed an earlier 42-count charge against Sylva on the ground that the EFCC was prosecuting him before two different courts on the same facts.

Meantime, when the fresh charge was called up yesterday, both Sylva and the other accused persons insisted that the court lacked the territorial jurisdiction to try them.

They argued that a case earlier dismissed by the same high court could not be resuscitated.