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Bayelsa State
government officials facing charges of money laundering and diversion
of public funds yesterday urged the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) to speed up the prosecution of the case for them, to
clear their names.

The commission had,
on March 23, charged four top officials of the state government, namely
Francis Okoruko, Abbot Clinton, Ikhobo Anthony Howells, and Sylva
Opuala – Charles. But since their arraignment, trial until now was yet
to commence.

At the trial
yesterday, the accused persons, through their counsel, Chris Uche and
Sunday Ibrahim Ameh, expressed keenness to go into trial and withdrew
their objection to the admissibility of a document sought to be
tendered in evidence by the prosecuting counsel, Festus Keyamo.

Mr. Keyamo had
sought to tender the statement made to the EFCC by the 2nd accused
person, Clinton Abbot, through his prosecution witness 1, Mr. Adebayo
Adeniyi Oluwasegun, but Messrs. Uche and Ameh objected to the procedure
on the premise that it would offend Section 36 [a] of the Evidence Act
since he [Oluwasegun] was not incidental to the statement being made.

After a spell of
arguments, the judge, Donatus Okoronwo, was to adjourn the matter to
enable him rule. But Counsel to the accuse persons, eager to make
progress with the trial, agreed to withdraw the objection after Mr.
Keyamo had entered an undertaking that he would not rely on any other
Investigating Police Officer [IPO] to tender any further evidence.

“My lord, I want to
save our time and the time of the court by seeking to tender my
exhibits through this witness, who is an IPO. I will not call any other
if I am allowed to tender these documents through him,” Mr. Keyamo said.

In response,
Messrs. Uche and Ameh said since Mr. Keyamo had entered the
undertaking, the accused persons, in demonstration of their desire for
speedy trial, would withdraw their objection so that progress can be
made.

Trial date fixed

Accordingly, the
statement sought to be tendered was admitted in evidence, after which
the police officer recounted steps he took in the course of
investigating the case.

Eventually, Mr.
Keyamo applied for an adjournment, which the court granted. Trial was
adjourned to December 14 and 15, 2010, for continuation.

The charges against
the accused are, read in part, that “you, Francis Okokuro, Abbot T.
Clinton, Ikobho Anthony Howells, and Charles Sylva Osuala (now at
large), sometime between October 2009 and February 2010, at various
places in Nigeria, including Abuja, within the jurisdiction of the
Federal High Court, did conspire to commit a crime; to wit: conversion
of properties and resources amounting to N2billion, belonging to
Bayelsa State government and derived from an illegal act, with the aim
of concealing the illicit origin of the said amount and you thereby
committed an offence contrary to Section 17(a) of the Money Laundering
(Prohibition Act), 2004, and punishable under Section 14(1) of the same
Act.”

The officials were
accused of using the state government’s name to carry out several
financial transactions, using various account numbers in at least four
banks in the country with the intention of defrauding the state.