Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court, Abuja, has adjourned the trial of Shamsudeen Bala, a son to the former FCT Minister, Bala Mohammed, to June 26, 2017 while granting him permission to travel for (Umrah) lesser hajj.
Shamsudeen is facing a 15-count charge bordering on money laundering offence. He is being charged along with four companies – Bird Trust Agro Allied Ltd, Intertrans Global Logistics Ltd, Diakin Telecommunications Ltd & Bal-Vac mining Ltd.
He is alleged to have paid about N1.1bn for the purchase of houses without going through financial institutions, an act which is a breach of Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2011 (as amended in 2012).
At the resumed hearing today, the defendant, through his counsel, Kanayo Okafor, pleaded with the court to be allowed to travel to Saudi Arabia to perform this year’s lesser hajj.
Okafor also pleaded with the court to order the release of the defendant’s international passport which was deposited with the Court Registrar as part of his bail conditions.
In his response, counsel to EFCC, Ben Ikani, opposed the application, arguing that the leave was not based on health grounds.
“If he is granted leave to travel, he might jump bail and may not come back for his trial and his request is only aimed at stalling this trial,” he added, and urged the court to order a day-to-day trial.
While leaving the request to the discretion of the court, Mr. Ikani urged the trial judge not to release the passport to the defendant.
In his ruling Justice Dimgba, however, granted the defendant three weeks to travel on the following conditions: “He must produce an undertaking by a serving national assembly member with a verifiable identity; EFCC shall verify the identity of the National Assembly member, 24 hours before travelling, and defendant must submit his international passport 24 hours before the next adjourned date.”