By Emegwoako C. Paschal
On Wednesday, October 26th, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission re-arrested suspended Accountant-General of the Federation Ahmed Idris and three others in a Federal Capital Territory High Court in Maitama over an alleged N109.5bn fraud.
Olusegun Akindele, Mohammed Usman, and Gezawa Commodity Market and Exchange Limited are also defendants.
On Friday, July 22, they were arraigned before a vacation judge, Justice Adeyemi Ajayi, on a 13-count charge of misappropriation of N109.5 billion.
However, when the court reconvened, the case was assigned to Justice Yusuf Halilu.
They all entered not guilty pleas to the charges leveled against them.
Following their not-guilty plea, Idris’s counsel, Chris Uche (SAN), asked the court to allow the defendants to continue to benefit from the earlier bail granted to them on Thursday, July 28, maintaining that they had been following their bail conditions.
Other defendants’ attorneys supported Uche’s application and submission.
Oluwaleke Atolagbe, counsel for the EFCC, did not object to the application, leaving the decision to the court’s discretion.
In her decision on the application, Justice Halilu stated that bail is a defendant’s constitutional right.
He did, however, order that the defendants present their passports to the court’s registrar.
The judge went on to say that if the documents are with the prosecution, they should be given to the registrar.
The case was adjourned until Wednesday, November 23 by Justice Halilu.
According to the EFCC, between February and December 2021, Idris accepted a gratification of N15. 1 billion from Akindele in exchange for accelerating the payment of 13% derivation to the federation’s nine oil-producing states through the office of the Accountant General of the Federation.
The anti-graft agency also claimed that the first and second defendants converted N84. 3 billion from the Federal Government’s account between February and November 2021.
