A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has struck out the charges of non-declaration of assets against a former Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu.
The charged were filed against the lawmaker by the defunct Special Presidential Investigation Panel (SPIP) for the Recovery of Public Property.
The panel, then led by Mr Okoi Obono-Obla, instituted the case against Senator Ekweremadu in 2018.
It alleged that “without reasonable excuse,” the serving senator refused and neglected to declare his assets upon being served the panel’s “notice to declare”.
The office of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) later took over the case and other suits being handled by the SPIP upon a presidential directive dissolving the panel in 2019.
In her ruling on Monday, Justice Binta Nyako struck out the case against Senator Ekweremadu after the prosecuting counsel from the office of the AGF, Mr Pius Akutah, informed the court that the former lawyer handling the case for the panel had disappeared with the case file.
Akutah pleaded with the judge to order the former counsel to release the file to the AGF office but the request was declined by the judge.
Lawyer to Senator Ekweremadu, however, urged the judge to strike out the suit which she did.
