An Abuja High Court at Maitama has remanded the former Minister of Finance, Bashir Yuguda, former governor of Sokoto State, Attahiru Dalhatu Bafarawa and his son, Sagir Attahiru in prison custody, pending the perfection of their bail conditions.
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In a ruling today, trial Justice Peter Affen granted the accused persons bail in the sum of N250 million each, with two sureties in like sum.
The court held that one of the sureties must be a retired or serving Director in the Federal Civil Service.
According to Justice Affen, the second surety must be a owner of a landed property within the Federal Capital Territory, which value must not be below N250 million, saying title deed of such property must be tendered to the Registrar of the High Court for verification.
According to Justice Affen, the second surety must be a owner of a landed property within the Federal Capital Territory, which value must not be below N250 million, saying title deed of such property must be tendered to the Registrar of the High Court for verification.
The court said lawyers to the accused persons must vouch for the character of the two sureties who it said would depose to an affidavit of means.
Besides, it ordered all the accused persons to surrender their international passports, stressing that they should not travel outside the jurisdiction of the court without permission.
“Pending the perfection of the bail conditions, the accused persons are to be remanded in prison custody”, Justice Affen held.
Equally affected by the court ruling are the former National Security Adviser, NSA, Col. Sambo Dasuki, retd, and the former Director of Finance in the Office of the NSA, Mr. Shuaibu Salisu.
The accused persons are answering to a 22-count criminal charges that were charged against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
They were alleged to have connived and diverted over N13.6 billion from the office of the NSA, prior to the 2015 general elections.
A company the anti-graft agency said served as conduit pipe for the alleged illegal diversion of the funds, Dahaltu Investment Limited, was also charged before the court as the 4th accused person.
All the accused persons had last week Tuesday, pleaded not guilty to the charge, even as they separately prayed Trial Justice Peter Affen to grant them bail pending hearing and determination of the criminal case against them.
They predicated their bail applications on provisions of sections 158, 162, 165, 167 and 168 (b) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, as well as section 36(5) (6) of the 1999 constitution.
The accused persons, through their lawyers, insisted that the charge slammed against them by the anti-graft agency were bailable offences.
Source: Vanguard
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