N2.8bn fraud: Court grants NAMA official permit for medical treatment abroad

Justice Babs Kuewumi of a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, on Friday granted permission for foreign medical travel to a top official of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Mrs Adegorite Joy, facing a N2.8 billion fraud charge

The order was made following Olumuyiwa’s application through her lawyer, Mr A. B. Onifade, seeking the release of her passport to enable her to travel to Dubai for medical treatment.

Onifade told the court at the last court sitting  that his client was suffering from acute sinusitis, asthma and hypertensive heart disease.

He said she had earlier scheduled a medical appointment with her doctor at the Saudi-German Hospital Group and had already purchased an air ticket before she was arrested in April.

Her health, he added, had since suffered a decline and he urged Justice Kuewumi to order the EFCC to release her passport to enable her to travel abroad, assuring that she would not jump bail or abscond.

“The defendant is hereby granted leave to travel to Dubai for specialised medical treatment. She is given four weeks to embark on the trip to Dubai and return to Nigeria,” Justice Keuwumi held.

The judge further ordered the EFCC to release immediately the defendant’s international passport.

It also ordered that after the trip, the defendant must deposit the passport in the court’s custody.

Olumuyiwa, the fifth defendant in the suit, was arraigned by the EFCC on April 12, alongside NAMA’s Managing Director, Ibrahim Abdusalam, and five other NAMA officials for an alleged N2.8bn fraud allegedly perpetrated within NAMA between August 2013 and January 2016.

The five others are Agbolade Segun, Clara Aliche, Olumuyiwa Adegorite, Bola Akinribido and Sesebor Abiodun.

Also joined as defendants are five companies, namely: Randville Investment Limited; Multeng Travels and Tours Limited; Delosa Limited; Airsea Delivery Limited and Sea Schedule System Limited.