The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Friday re-arraigned former Jigawa Gov. Sule Lamido, his two sons, and five others before Justice B.O. Quadri of the Federal High Court, Abuja.
Mr. Lamido, his sons, Aminu and Mustapha, were on re-arraigned alongside Aminu Abubakar, Batholomew Agoha and three companies on an amended 43-count charge bordering on money laundering and illegal diversion of public funds. They all pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Justice Quadri admitted Mr. Lamido to bail in the sum of N100 million and
two sureties in like sum while his sons and the other defendants were
admitted to bail in the sum of N50 million each and two sureties each in
like sum.
He said that sureties for Mr. Lamido must have landed property not
encumbered and depose to an affidavit that they were willing to forfeit
the property to the Federal Government should he breech his bail
condition.
The sureties for the other defendants must be civil servants in any
ministry from grade level 15 and above, who must present their tax
clearance certificate for the last three years.
They must also have more years in service and produce a letter from the
heads of their various ministries that they have no criminal record and
have never been indicted before.
Other conditions of the bail include that the EFCC, which is the
prosecuting agency, must verify the addresses of the sureties.
The judge ordered the defendants to also deposit their international
passports with the registrar of the court and must not, under any
circumstance, travel out of the country without the permission of the
court.
Justice Quadri ordered that the defendants be remanded in prison custody,
if they failed to perfect their bail conditions within two months from the
day of arraignment.
Earlier, the counsel to Mr. Lamido, Offiong Offiong, had prayed the court
to allow the defendants to continue on the previous bail conditions
granted them by Justices Gabriel Kolawale and Adeniyi Ademola.
But the prosecuting counsel, Chile Okoromma, objected on grounds that the charge against the defendants was new.
He argued that what happened before the previous judges was “dead and in the past”.
Mr. Lamido and his co-accused had been arraigned before Justice Evelyn
Anyadike of the Federal High Court, Kano State, on July 9, for allegedly
misappropriating funds belonging to Jigawa.
Their case was later transferred to the Federal High Court, Abuja, where
Justice Gabriel Kolawole, a vacation judge, granted them bail, and
adjourned the matter to Sept. 22, 2015.
The matter was then assigned to Justice Adeniyi Ademola but following his
arrest and prosecution by the Department of State Services, the matter was
transferred to Justice Quadri.
Following the acquittal of Mr. Ademola, Mr. Offiong prayed the court to
transfer the matter back to Ademola on grounds that 18 witness had already
testified.
Mr. Okoroma objected on grounds that the lead counsel for Lamido, Joe Agi, was tried along side Ademola for corruption-related offences.
He said that it would be wrong for Mr. Agi to defend a case before Mr.
Ademola because the public perception would be that the judge was biased, whichever way the verdict went.
(NAN)
