Court grants Babachir Lawal, 3 others N50M bail each

Mr Babachir David Lawal, Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF).

JUSTICE Jude Okeke of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), sitting at Maitama, Abuja, today granted bail to the immediate past Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Engineer Babachir David Lawal and three others.

The judge granted an N50million bail to each of the defendants with one surety in like sum.

Others granted bail by the court are Hamidu David Lawal, a director of Rholavision Engineering Limited; an employee of the company, Sulaiman Abubakar and the Managing Director of Josmon Technologies Limited, Apeh John Monday.

The four defendants alongside Rholavision Engineering Limited and Josmon Technologies Limited were on Tuesday arraigned before the court on a 10-count charge bordering on conspiracy and fraud.

They were arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on behalf of the Federal Government.

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Ruling on the bail applications of the defendants, Justice Okeke held that in accordance with the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 the former Federal Government scribe and the three others were entitled to be granted bail.

He, therefore, granted bail in the sum of N50 million each with a surety each.

The judge ordered that each of the surety must be resident of Abuja and must show the number of the residential address to Registrar of the court.

The surety, he added, must be a land titled owner in the Federal Capital Territory and also show evidence of tax payment in the last three years.

The judge ordered each of the defendants to deposit their international passports with the court.

Pending the fulfilment of the conditions of bail, Justice Okeke ordered that the defendants be remanded in EFCC custody.

Babachir Lawal was sacked by President Muhammadu Buhari in October 2017, alongside a former Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Mr Ayodele Oke, following a report of investigations by a panel headed by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo into allegations of fraud levelled against them.

The Osinbajo panel was put in place by Buhari following Lawal’s indictment by a Senate committee which investigated the management of money meant to assist internally displaced persons (IDPs) affected by Boko Haram insurgency.

While the committee indicted the former SGF for using his companies to get contracts worth millions of naira without executing them, the Senate urged the President to sack him from office due to his alleged involvement in syphoning money meant for the welfare of Boko Haram victims.

Meanwhile, Justice Okeeh as adjourned the case till March 18 for the commencement of trial.

Grace Abejide