A Federal Capital Territory High Court sitting in Maitama on Wednesday struck out the case against the former Director of Legal, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Grace Taiga.
Taiga was accused of bribery in the controversial Gas Supply Processing agreement between Process and Industrial Development and the Federal Government.
She was first arraigned on September 20, 2019, in the case marked, FCT/HC/CR/504/19.
There were further amendments to the charges against Taiga.
She was subsequently re-arraigned twice on October 3, 2020, and January 10, 2021.
In the amended 13-count preferred against her by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Taiga was accused of receiving a bribe through her offshore bank account in signing the controversial GPSA.
The anti-graft agency claimed that she violated various laws by entering into the agreement without the approval of the Federal Executive Council and without obtaining a Certificate of No Objection to the contract from the Bureau of Public Enterprise.
She, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The EFCC closed its case on February 27, 2023, after calling eight witnesses.
The court then adjourned till November 4, 2023, for the defendant to open her defence.
However, when the case resumed on November 4, 2023, Taiga’s lawyer, Daniel Alumun, told the court that the defendant had died on August 1, 2023, at a hospital in Abuja.
Alumum then urged the judge to dismiss the case, a prayer that the EFCC expressed reservation about.
At the last adjourned date, the EFCC demanded to see her death certificate before the case could be struck out.
At the court proceedings on Wednesday, Alumun brought the Certified True Copy of Taiga’s death certificate.
He told the court that he already served the prosecution as well as the court.
Alumun added that the death was registered on February 29, 2024, with the National Population Commission.
In his submission, counsel for the EFCC, Mohammed Hussain confirmed he had been served Taiga’s death certificate.
Based on the death certificate, he urged the court to strike out the case against the defendant.
Justice Olukayode Adeniyi, thereafter, struck out the case.
“The defendant’s counsel having produced the death certificate in the case against the defendant is hereby struck out,” he held.
PUNCH reports that a London arbitration court held that the process through which P&ID secured the 2010 contract to build a gas processing plant in Calabar, Cross River State, was fraudulent.
SOURCE: PUNCH
