TheCable

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Friday re-arraigned Sule Lamido, former governor of Jigawa, before B.O. Quadri, a justice of the federal high court, Abuja.

Lamido, his sons, Aminu and Mustapha, were 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.

Quadri admitted 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 sureties for 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 breached 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.

Quadri ordered that the defendants be remanded in prison, if they failed to perfect their bail conditions within two months from the day of arraignment.

Offiong Offiong (SAN), counsel to Lamido, had prayed the court to allow the defendants to continue on the previous bail conditions granted them by Gabriel Kolawale and Adeniyi Ademola, two judges.

But Chile Okoromma, the prosecuting counsel, 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”.

Lamido and his co-accused had been arraigned before Evelyn Anyadike of the Federal High Court, Kano state, on July 9, 2015, for allegedly misappropriating funds belonging to Jigawa.

Their case was later transferred to the federal high court, Abuja, where Kolawole, a vacation judge, granted them bail, and adjourned the matter to September 22, 2015.

The matter was then assigned to Ademola but following his arrest and prosecution by the Department of State Services (DSS), the matter was transferred to Quadri.

Following the acquittal of Ademola, Offiong prayed the court to transfer the matter back to Ademola on grounds that 18 witnesses had already testified.

Okoroma objected on grounds that the lead counsel for Lamido, Joe Agi (SAN), was tried alongside Ademola for corruption-related offences.

He said it would be wrong for Agi to defend a case before Ademola because the public perception would be that the judge was biased, whichever way the verdict went.