Ex-Jigawa Gov, Turaki Gets Fresh N500m Bail

Alex Enumah in Abuja
The Federal High Court in Abuja Tuesday granted a fresh bail in the sum of N500million with two sureties in the sum of N250million each to a former Governor of Jigawa State, Saminu Turaki.

Justice Nnamdi Dimgba granted the bail after Turaki pleaded not guilty to a 32-count charge slammed against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Yesterday would be the second time, Turaki would be admitted to bail in less than a week.
Justice Yusuf Halilu of the Abuja High Court had last Thursday granted Turaki bail from the custody of the EFCC.
In granting the bail, Justice Dimgba held that the sureties should either be businessmen, private persons or civil servants not below the level of director and must have a landed property in within the FCT or any of the satellite towns within Abuja.

The judge added that the sureties must deposit their evidence of tax payment from the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).
He further held that the defendant must deposit his travel documents with the court’s registrar and must report to the headquarter of the EFCC every first working day of every month.
Justice Dimgba also held that the defendant should be remanded in Kuje prison pending the satisfaction of the bail condition.

The court later adjourned the case till September 19, a date which the Federal High Court, Dutse had earlier fixed.
The matter would now be continued before Justice Sabi’u Yahuza of the Dutse Federal High Court.
Turaki was arraigned alongside three companies , INC Natural Resources Ltd, Apel Construction Ltd and WideHeart Construction Ltd over alleged 32-count charges bordering on money laundering.

When the charges were read to Turaki, he pleaded not guilty.
Counsel to the defendant, Ahmed Raji (SAN) however moved an oral application prayed the court to grant his client bail on grounds that the defendant is not an ordinary citizen as he had ruled a state for eight years.
Raji cited Section163 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), which entitle the defendant to bail unless the court sees the contrary.

He further submitted that the defence was not aware of yesterday’s arraignment as they would have come with a proper application and the defendant had spent two weeks in detention.
The prosecuting counsel, Mohammed Abubakar however opposed the oral application on grounds that Section 163 cited by the defence is more rigid than Section162 of the ACJA.
Mohammed told the court that the defendant was arrested pursuant to a bench warrant issued in September 2014 by Justice Sabi’u Yahuza and that since then, the commission have been making effort to get hold of him without success until July 4.

He added that the bail is to ensure that the defendant attend his trial, if he is release on bail he might not make himself available for the trial and this will defeat our effort.
Turaki was first arraigned before Justice Binta Murtala Nyako of the Federal High Court but had his case later transferred to Justice Sabi’u Yahuza of the Federal High Court, Dutse, Jigawa State after he objected to the jurisdiction of the court in Abuja.

He was subsequently re-arraigned at the Federal High Court in Dutse, Jigawa on a 32-count charge of misappropriating N36 billion while in office.
However, after his re-arraignment at Federal High Court Dutse, Turaki allegedly refused to attend trial a situation which resulted in the commission declaring him wanted in May, 2013.