A federal court has ordered a former Jigawa State governor, Sule
Lamido, and his two sons, Aminu and Mustapha, accused of fraud, to be
remanded in prison custody in Kano till September 28.
The former governor was arraigned on Thursday alongside his children
for receiving N1.35 billion kickback from a government contractor.
The money was paid into accounts controlled by the governor and his sons.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, accused the trio of money laundering, amongst other charges.
They were due for arraignment Wednesday, but the court appearance was rescheduled to Thursday.
Security was stepped up around the court vicinity in Kano ahead of the hearing Thursday.
Delivering a ruling, Justice Evelyn Anyadike ordered that the four
accused persons be remanded in a Kano Prison Custody because the EFCC
said they lacked enough facilities to accommodate them.
She rejected the pleas of defence counsel, Effiong Effiong, SAN, that
the accused be kept at EFCC custody, saying the commission had
complained of inadequate facilities.
Twenty eight-count charge bordering on a number of alleged breach of
trust by Sule Lamido, Aminu Sule Lamido, Mustapha Sule Lamido and one
Aminu Wada Abubakar, was read in court.
The case involved N1.351 billion.
The judge ruled that the accused persons be remanded pending the hearing of their bail applications.
Earlier, the defence counsel, Mr. Effiong had argued that remanding
the accused persons in prison will amount to trampling on their
fundamental human rights.
He pleaded they be sent to EFCC facilities.
However, the counsel to EFCC, Chile Okoroma, objected to the plea
saying their EFCC facilities were full to capacity both in Kano and
Abuja.
The case was adjourned to 28 September for ruling on bail application.
There was pandemonium in court between those supporting Mr. Lamido
and those against, leading police to fire into the air to disperse the
crowd.
Mr. Lamido, his sons and Mr. Abubakar are accused of using their positions to siphon Jigawa State funds.
PREMIUM TIMES had in 2014 reported how a construction firm, Dantata
and Sawoe, paid N1.3 billion as 10 percent kickback for contracts it
won, into accounts owned by the governor and his sons.
It also showed how, between 2007, when Mr. Lamido assumed office, and
2014, Dantata and Sawoe Construction Company was awarded contracts
amounting to N13.5 billion.
The state government made payments for the contracts to the
construction firm through five banks – Zenith, Access, Diamond, Sterling
and UBA.
Within the same period, according to a probe of the transactions by
the EFCC, Dantata and Sawoe paid out over N1.3 billion into the accounts
of companies in which the governor and his sons had interest.
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