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Hope of an easy
passage to freedom for the trio of
Thomas Iseghohi, Muhammed Buba, and
Mike Okoli,
Group Managing Director (GMD) of
Transnational Corporation (TRANSCORP)
Plc,
Company Secretary and Deputy
General Manager (DGM) respectively was
on Monday June 22, 2009 ruffled when the
court granted them bail on stringent
conditions.
The accused
persons who had stayed in both EFCC and
prison custody for more than three weeks
on the orders of the court,
are standing trial on a thirty
two count charge of criminal
conspiracy, criminal breach of trust,
money laundering and misappropriation of
public funds to the tune of Fifteen
billion naira (N15 billion).
The
case was brought against them by the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) on the 27th May,2009
before Justice Anuli Chikere of the
Federal High Court, Maitama, Abuja.
Ruling on the
bail application, the presiding judge
after a review of the submissions of the
prosecution and the defence counsel,
Audu .M. Nunghe and Joe Gadzama
respectively, noted that bail was a
fundamental right of an accused person
according to section 35(1) of the 1999
constitution.
In
addition,Justice Chikere said that the
accused were presumed innocent until
proven otherwise and that the offences
for which they were charged were
bailable.
She thereafter
granted them bail on the following
stringent conditions:
·
Bail granted in the sum of
N500million each.
·
Accused to produce two
sureties in like sum
·
Sureties must be civil
servants with either a federal ministry
or parastatal and must produce evidence
of appointment.
·
Sureties must be owners of
landed property in Abuja with evidence
of ownership from Abuja Geographic
Information System (AGIS)
*Sureties must
show evidence of tax clearance for three
years from Federal Inland Revenue
Service (FIRS)
*Each accused
person must deposit his international
passport to the court registry.
After reading out
the stringent bail conditions, the trial
judge ordered the accused to be remanded
in kuje prison custody pending the time
they will meet the conditions for their
temporary freedom.
The case was
thereafter adjourned to July 29,2009 for
substantive hearing.
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