Court grants Ayanda Carter bail after 6 days in Prison custody

An Upper Area Court sitting in Abuja on Tuesday granted Interior Designer, Ayanda Carter bail after hearing of a bail application filed by the Counsels to the defendant.

Carter was arraigned on April 18, 2023 in a Criminal Charge No.: CR/102/2023, between the Inspector General of Police vs Ayanda Carter.

First Information Report of the case as obtained by our correspondent reads,
“Nature of information: CRIMINAL BREACH OF TRUST, CHEATING AND CRIMINAL INTIMIDATION contrary to session 312, 322, and 397 of the Panel Code Act. Inspector General of Police is informed by Stanel Group that you, Ayanda Carter sometimes in the month of December 2019, presented yourself as an Interior Designer to the Group and that you are capable of making the design they need. Based on your presentation they engage your services to produce the design and supervise the production of the products which you agreed at the sum of N24,000,000 for your services. In breach of the trust reposed in you, notwithstanding, you were paid flight ticket on business class and all bill taken care of accommodation and logistics to the tune of N6,995,762 and you insisted on bringing some people to Nigeria to take measurement of where the goods to be produced are to be fixed which cost N7,278,400 making all the money expended to enable you carrying out your obligation to N38,274,162 (Thirty Eight Million, Two Hundred and Seventy Four Thousand, One Hundred and Sixty Two Naira only to enable you supervise the production of the goods and the quality agreed upon, the above you negotiated for inferior quality without recourse to Stanel Group all in a bid for self-gain When the goods, 12 forty foot containers arrived, it was discovered that they were all inferior quality not what was agreed upon and when you were confronted by the CEO Stanel Group you threatened that you will abandon and sabotage the work and that there was nothing anyone could do to make you oblige and not even the Inspector General of Police. You collected the money and converted it into your own personal use Thereby Committed Offence Punishable Under The Above Mentioned Law.”

It was also gathered that the said project, a 5 Star Hotel, located in a highbrow area of Lagos, Nigera was bid for commissioning in June 2022 but owing to the delay caused by the defendant”s act, till now the project is not yet ready for commissioning as Ayanda allegedly stopped taking the company’s calls, stopped supervision of the project which was one of the terms of the agreement and other behaviours that have caused the organisation to loss additional millions of naira.

However, upon “Not Guilty” plea by the Defendant, the presiding Judge, Honourable Gambo Garba ordered that Carter be remanded in Suleja Correctional Center pending the hearing and determination of her bail application which came up on Tuesday (today).

Ayanda Carter’s leading Counsel, Jamiu Agoro, prayed the court to grant the defendant bail.

Delivering his ruling on the application for bail Garba said the offences were bailable and granted her bail with bail bond of N100,000,000 and one surety who must be a public servant from Grade Level 13 and above.

The judge also ordered that the defendant must submit her passport to the registry.

The prosecuting lawyer, Abdulrashid Isyaku earlier opposed the bail application moved by the defendants’ lawyers but said except it’s on the condition that her passport be seized since the defendant is not a Nigerian to prevent her from running to her mother country if granted bail.

The case was adjourned till May 8 for the commencement of trial.