Former Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State and his two sons have been granted bail by a Federal High Court in Abuja in a fresh twist to alleged corruption and money laundering trial.
He was granted bail on self recognition.His two sons,Aminu and Mustapha were granted bail in the sum of N25 million each.
Tuesday’s bail was the dramatic highpoint in the fresh twist to the corruption and money laundering charges Lamido and his sons were arraigned for originally in Kano.
Newsdiaryonline has been monitoring the Lamido saga closely since Monday afternoon after reports reached our newsroom that the former governor along with his sons had been transferred to Kuje Prisons in Abuja for a probable arraignment in Abuja Tuesday to facilitate their release on bail.In fact, people close to the former governor were almost certain by Monday that the former governor and his sons would be out on bail Tuesday.
The former governor was arraigned in Kano last week and the court remanded them in a Prison till September ,meaning that he will spend nearly 3 months in prison.
But the decision of the court to remand him in prison was criticized by Colonel Abubakar Umar (rtd),a former military governor of Kaduna state.Umar said the decision was strange since the offence for which Lamido and his sons were being tried was bailable.
The former military governor also appealed to the judge to temper justices with mercy and grant them bail especially since people charged with similar offences had been and are being granted bail.
It could be recalled that former Governor Ikedi Ohakim of Imo state was granted bail in Abuja last week after he was arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,EFCC.Also, former Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa state and his son who were arraigned last week by EFCC were also granted bail.So, the refusal to grant Lamido bail became even more perplexing to keen observers.
Despite Umar’s intervention through the media, few expected that Lamido’s travails would take such a dramatic twist with the trial being held in Abuja instead of Kano where he was first arraigned.
So who ordered their transfer to Abuja?And why?There was no official statement from EFCC at the time of filing this story.
