The Code of Conduct Bureau, CCT, has dismissed reports in the media that the charges against former Niger Delta minister, Godswill Orubebe, had been withdrawn by the federal government, saying that the trial is still going on.

A statement issued on Monday by the Tribunal’s head of Press and Public Relations, Ibraheem Al-hassan, clarified that the charges against Orubebe were only substituted with fresh ones and that the former minister’s trial will continue on April 7, the next adjourned date for the case.

The Tribunal said that the newspaper reports were “misleading, distortive and as such it should be ignored.”

“The Tribunal is compelled to refute the said publications, particularly those contained in ThisDay Newspaper, Leadership and some online media, dated March 21st, 2016. The purported withdrawal of the case was quoted to be based on the case being fundamentally defective,” the CTT spokesman stated.

“The case of Mr Godsday Peter Orubebe before CCT in Charge NO: CCT/ABJ/02/15 is on-going. What transpired in court in the last session held on 8th March, 2016 was a substitution of the initial charge with a newly filed charge by the prosecution, of which leave was sought from, and granted by the Tribunal,” the CCT said further.

Orubebe was arraigned at the tribunal on November 9, 2015, for false declaration of assets and obtaining a bribe of N70 million from a contractor.