A Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, has discharged and acquitted a former member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Farah Dagogo, of criminal charges preffered against him by the state government.
Dagogo was arrested in Port Harcourt on April 28, 2022 in Port Harcourt, the day he appeared for screening as a governorship aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the 2023 general election.
The then Rivers State governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, had declared him wanted for allegedly sponsoring thugs and cultists to disrupt the PDP screening exercise for National Assembly and State Assembly aspirants in 2022.
The former lawmaker strenuously denied the allegation, maintaining that it was all trumped-up charges to prevent him from contesting the governorship seat of Rivers State.
In his ruling in suit No: PHC/1440/CR/2022 – ‘The State vs Hon Farah Dagogo’, Justice Chinwendu Nworgu of the State High Court expressed dismay that the prosecution was not diligent and thereby discharged and acquitted the former governorship aspirant of all charges.
Before the latest ruling, Dagogo had been on bail since June 2022, after earlier spending 63 days in detention.
Speaking after the ruling, the lead counsel to the former federal lawmaker, Sir Cosmas Enweluzo, SAN, explained that the ruling has freed Dr. Farah Dagogo of all encumbrances as the case cannot be resurrected in any court of law in the country.
Enweluzo said: “The matter has just ended. The court dismissed the charge and discharged and acquitted the defendant which is Hon. Doctor Farah Dagogo. And this is premise on the fact that there is absolute lack of diligent prosecution.
“The prosecution has lost its steam and so because of that, the court cannot forever keep an accused or defendant perpetually attending the court, restraining his movements and stopping him from using his precious time and subjecting everything about him to abysmal waste.
“As a result of that, the court, after its consideration, struck out the charge and then discharged and acquitted the defendant. That means that no means or form of other charges can be brought up in any court of law against Hon. Doctor Farah Dagogo as a result of this charge.
“Any further action taken will be seen as double jeopardy because of the fact that decision has been taken in this matter. In other words, the decision has rested the case fully and finally, not to resurrect again.”
Dagogo was one of the frontline supporters of the PDP presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Atiku Abubakar, in Rivers State.
