Supreme Court discharges, acquits Bode George, 5 others

George, a chieftain of the PDP, was sentenced to 30 months in prison on Jan. 11, 2011 for contracts inflation during his tenure at the NPA.Others were former NPA Managing Director Aminu Dabo, O. Adeboye, Abdullahi Tafida, Zanna Maideribe and Sule Aliyu.Setting aside the judgment of the lower court, Justice Afolabi Fabiyi, who led three […]

George, a chieftain of the PDP, was sentenced to 30 months in prison on Jan. 11, 2011 for contracts inflation during his tenure at the NPA.
Others were former NPA Managing Director Aminu Dabo, O. Adeboye, Abdullahi Tafida, Zanna Maideribe and Sule Aliyu.
Setting aside the judgment of the lower court, Justice Afolabi Fabiyi, who led three other justices of the court, said the allegations were not proved at the lower courts.
He held that George was wrongly convicted of N85billion contract scam.
According to Fabiyi, it was a complete mistrial by the lower court.
Justice Olubunmi Oyewole of the Ikeja High Court, Lagos, convicted George and five others for the offence of inflating contracts to N100 billion.
The EFCC, under Nuhu Ribadu, had indicted George in its report submitted to the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
In separate judgments, the court discharged and acquitted Dabo, Adeboye, Maiderbe  and Aliyu who adopted George’s address.
George and the others had appealed against the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, delivered on Jan. 21, 2011.