The crime-fighting body of Nigeria, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has withdrawn a 14 count charge filed against a former Nigerian Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Madueke.

The EFCC was also said to have dropped the charges against Ben Otti, Nnamdi Okonkwo, Stanley Lawson, Lanre Adesanya, and Dauda Lawal, all of whom are former officials of commercial banks and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

According to Daily Trust, at the resumed hearing of the matter before Justice Muslim Hassan of a Federal High Court Lagos on 5th November 2019, EFCC through its lawyer Rotimi Oyedepo dropped the corruption charges against most of the accused persons through an amended four-count.

The amended charges which border on money laundering only seeks to prosecute a former Executive Director of First Bank PLC, Dauda Lawal alongside Diezani Madueke and Ben Otti who served as Group Executive Director of finance at the NNPC.

Madueke and Ben Otti have both been at large since the beginning of the matter which was first filed in Court on 28th November 2018.

Also, Nnamdi Okonkwo, Managing Director, Fidelity Bank; Stanley Lawson, a former Group Executive Director Finance NNPC and Lanre Adesanya, an Executive Director at Sterling Bank all did not make any appearance in court and have not been arraigned