Less than just five days after a High Court of
the Federal Capital Territory, Maitama, Abuja,
granted bail to a former Governor of Jigawa
State, Saminu Turaki, a Federal High Court in
Abuja on Tuesday ordered his remand in
Kuje Prison, Abuja.
According to a The Punch report, although
Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High
Court granted bail to the ex-governor on
fresh bail conditions on Tuesday, he ordered
the defendant to remain in Kuje Prisons,
Abuja, pending when the bail conditions
were met.
Justice Dimgba gave the order shortly after
the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission re-arraigned Turaki and three
companies on 32 counts of money
laundering offences involving about N37bn.
The defendants allegedly committed the
offences between 2006 and 2007 while the
former governor was in office.
Turaki, alongside his co-defendants — INC
Natural Resources Ltd., Arkel Construction
Nigeria Ltd and Wildcat Construction Ltd —
were earlier arraigned before the Dutse,
Jigawa State Division of the Federal High
Court, in 2011.
But he was said to have since evaded trial
until the EFCC, acting on an arrest warrant
issued against Turaki by the court in Dutse
about three years ago, arrested him on July
4, 2017, at an event in Abuja.
While the EFCC was facilitating how to
produce him before the court in Dutse, the
judge went on his annual vacation and
Turaki then filed a rights enforcement suit
before the FCT High Court in Abuja, seeking
an order of the court releasing him from the
anti-graft agency’s custody.
He also filed an interlocutory application
which he urged the court to consider before
the hearing of the main suit.
The application was opposed by the EFCC on
the grounds that with Turaki’s antecedent
of jumping bail earlier granted him six years
ago by the Federal High Court in Dutse and
his evasion of the arrest warrant issued by
the same court about three years ago, he
would likely jump bail again.
But in his ruling on Thursday, Justice Yusuf
Halilu of the FCT High Court granted bail to
the ex-governor on conditions which merely
required him to submit his travel documents
to the registry of the court, produce “two
reasonable sureties” residing in Abuja, and
sign a register to be opened at the EFCC’s
office every two weeks.
But instead of releasing him, the EFCC filed
afresh in the Federal High Court in Abuja, the
same set of charges already pending against
the defendants before the court in Dutse.
The anti-graft agency then re-arraigned
Turaki and the three companies before
Justice Dimgba in Abuja, being the only
judge sitting as a vacation judge in the
northern region of the country while the
other Federal High Court judges proceed on
vacation.
After Turaki pleaded not guilty to the 32
counts on Tuesday, Justice Dimgba said he
was inclined to granting bail to the ex-
governor “in deference” to the earlier bail
granted the defendant by Justice Halilu of
the FCT High Court.
He asked the prosecution and the defence
led by Mr. Ahmed Raji (SAN), to agree on the
bail conditions to be imposed on the
defendant.
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