The Court of Appeal sitting in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, on Thursday discharged and acquitted a former governor of the state, Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala, over the N11.5 billion corruption charges leveled against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The court further discharged and acquitted a former Deputy Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Hosea Agboola, who is currently the chairman of the Governor’s Advisory Council to Governor Seyi Makinde, and a business mogul, Mr Femi Babalola, popularly known as Jogor.
Agboola served as Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters during Alao-Akala’s tenure as governor between 2007 and 2011, while Babalola owns an engineering firm, Pentagon Engineering Services, that executed some contracts during the former governor’s administration.
The trial, presided over by a three-man panel led by Justice Jimi Olukayode Bada and comprising of Justices Abba Muhammed and Abdulazeez Waziri, lasted 11 years.
In a related development, a former Ekiti State governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, was on Thursday re-arraigned by the EFCC before a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos State.
Fayose was re-arraigned alongside his company, Spotless Limited, before Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke, on 11 counts bordering on fraud and money laundering offences.
In the amended charge, Fayose and one of his associates, Abiodun Agbele, were alleged to have on June 17, 2014, taken possession of N1.219 billion to fund Fayose’s 2014 gubernatorial campaign in Ekiti State.
Meanwhile, Agbele is standing trial on alleged money laundering offences before another division of the court.
