BARELY five days after a high court sitting in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, granted him bail, a federal high court also in Abuja on Tuesday, July 18, ordered that Saminu Turaki, a former governor of Jigawa State, be remanded in Kuje Prison, Abuja.

Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the federal high court, who gave the order, similarly granted a fresh bail to Turaki, but ordered that the former governor be detained in Kuje Prisons, Abuja, pending when the bail conditions were met.

Justice Dimgba gave the order shortly after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, re-arraigned Turaki and three companies on 32 counts of money laundering offences involving about N37bn.

The offences were allegedly committed between 2006 and 2007 while Turaki was the governor of Jigawa State.

The former governor, 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 allegedly 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.

As the EFCC was preparing to take him before the court in Dutse, the judge went on annual vacation. On his part, the former governor filed a rights enforcement suit before the FCT high court in Abuja, seeking and obtaining an order from the court for his release from the EFFC’s custody.

In granting the bail to the former governor on Thursday, July 13, Justice Yusuf Halilu of the FCT high court, simply asked 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.

Apparently not satisfied with the bail conditions, instead of releasing him, the EFCC filed afresh in the federal high court in Abuja, with the same set of charges already pending against the defendants before the high 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, July 18, 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.

The judge asked both the prosecution and the defence to agree on the bail conditions to be imposed on the defendant.

—  Jul 18, 2017 @ 16:40 GMT