Nigeria, Feb. 28 -- The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Friday, arraigned a former governor of Abia State, Theodore Orji. and four others on money laundering charges involving N60.85 billion allegedly stolen from the state government.

The defendants were arraigned before trial judge Lilian Abai of the Abia State High Court I Umuahia.

They faced 16 counts of conspiracy, official corruption, stealing and diversion of public funds.

The prosecution alleged in one of the counts that sometime between 2011 and 2015 in Umuahia, Abia State, the defendants stole and converted N22.5 billion being the allocation to the Abia State Government as security votes.

Another count stated that between 2010 and 2011, the defendants cons...