Ex governor insists he didn’t steal N11B

A former Governor of Katsina State, Ibrahim Shehu Shema, says he has nothing to fear in the case of fraud against him to the tune of N11B.

In September 2016, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) declared Shema a wanted man.

Shema would go on to turn himself in soon after.

Appeal

In 2017, Shema and his co-defendants had filed a case before the apex court, challenging their trial.

It was a case they lost before settling for an interlocutory injunction.

Not satisfied, they took their prayers to the Supreme Court.

They contended that EFCC lacks the powers to have them tried under a law they said was enacted by the Katsina State government.

Shema has always considered his trial a case of witch-hunt by his successor Aminu Bello Masari (APC).

However, the Supreme Court ruled that Shema and his co-defendants have a case to answer.

“This interlocutory appeal lacks merit and is hereby dismissed,” ruled Justice Bage.

Nothing to fear

Speaking through his media aide, Olawale Oluwabusola, Shema says he isn’t scared of facing trial.

“Now that the highest court in the land has spoken, he expects the EFCC and the Katsina State government to comply with and provide necessary documents to prepare his defence as provided by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”, Shema says in the statement made available to journalists.

“The former governor is always ready to defend himself and to prove his innocence on universal principles of rule of law and fair hearing, against the politically motivated smear campaign of calumny being ochestrated by the Katsina state government, using agencies of state and federal government as tools to cow the opposition”, the statement added.

Shema, 61, served as Governor of Katsina State on the platform of the PDP from 2007 to 2015.