A High Court sitting in Abuja, on Friday, remanded the former Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, in prison custody, following his alleged complicity in the illegal diversion of public funds to the tune of about N109.4 billion.
Trial Justice A.O. Adeyemi Ajayi remanded the ex-AGF, after he was arraigned on a 14-count charge that bordered on conspiracy, criminal breach of trust and money laundering.
All the defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The court ruled that Idris and other Defendants in the matter should remain in custody of the Nigerian Correctional Service till Wednesday when their bail applications will be heard.
Other Defendants in the matter are: Godfrey Olusegun Akindele, Mohammed Kudu Usman and Gezawa Commodity Market and Exchange Limited.
Meanwhile, all the Defendants had after they pleaded not guilty to the charge, separately begged the court to release them on bail, pending the determination of the case against them.
Chris Uche, SAN, who appeared for the ex-AGF, assured the court that his client would be available to face the charge against him.
“In a matter of this nature that the Defendants have been on bail, and since there is no complaint that they violated the administrative bail conditions, I pray that they be allowed to continue to enjoy same”, Uche submitted.
Besides, he drew the attention of the court to the fact that the EFCC earlier seized the international passport of his client.
“This court has the power to grant bail in a matter of this nature, either by oral application or by a formal application.
“Moreover, we have also filed a formal bail application which we also served same on the Prosecution.
“The prisons are already saturated and unsafe”, Uche added.
However, the Prosecution counsel, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, told the court that he would need time to respond to the Defendants’ bail applications.
He argued that a wrong signal woukd be sent to society if the Defendants are allowed to go home after their arraignment, without hearing and determination of their formal bail applications.
“To ask them to go home without coming to argue the application for bail will send a wrong signal to the society that if a less important citizen is arraigned, such person would be made to suffer.
“Having filed the application, we need to react to what they said, especially on the issue that they were granted administrative bail and they complied to it”.
Ifunanya Ikueze is an Engineer, Safety Professional, Writer, Investor, Entrepreneur and Educator.