Bank Fraud: Atuche’s wife gets stringent bail conditions

Posted by admin Headlines Friday, May 20th, 2011

Wife of former Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bank PHB, Francis Atuche, Elizabeth who is facing a three-count charge of conspiracy and stealing of about N5.4bn belonging to the bank, was yesterday granted bail on stringent conditions by a Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja.

Justice Lateefah Okunnu while granting bail to the defendant in the sum of N50m with two sureties in the like sum also gave other conditions that must be met before she could regain freedom. Justice Okunnu in her ruling ordered that each of the two sureties provide the Court with evidence of payment of three years tax clearance. The sureties must be resident in Lagos metropolis with one of them owning a landed property worth N25m in Lagos and must be gainfully employed with a reputable firm or self-employed.

She also ordered that one of them must be a member of the Board of Director of a reputable firm or public corporation which operates in Nigeria and must have its head office either in Lagos or Abuja. The judge added that the other surety must be a civil servant on not lower than grade level 14. She further barred Elizabeth from traveling out of the country until the determination of the case and subsequently ordered her to submit her traveling passport to the Court and report to the EFCC office on the first working day of every month throughout the period of the determination of the case.

Before granting the bail, the trial judge, ruling on the application Justice Okunnuž held that admitting the defendant to bail was premised on the principle of presumption of innocence, fair hearing and personal liberty which the defendant has a right to. Justice Okunnu in her ruling said that the prosecution did not provide sufficient documents before the court in support of its opposition to the bail application to warrant the denial of the bail in favour of the defendant and as such would only exercise her discretionary power in granting the bail on certain terms. The trial judge fixed July 5 for trial.

In a related development, former Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Bank PHB, Francis Atuche who is currently facing prosecution over his alleged role in the theft of a multi-billion naira allegedly belonging to the bank will remain in custody following a pending application challenging the jurisdiction of the Court.
The bank chief was arraigned alongside the duo of Funmi Ademosun and Lekan Kasali by the anti-graft agency on a three-count charge of conspiracy to commit felony and stealing. Counsel to EFCC, Dele Adeshina (SAN), in a preliminary objection to the defendant’s summons for bail, urged the Court not to entertain the application since the jurisdictional competence of the court being challenged by the defendant is yet to be resolved

The Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) maintained that the application for bail was premature, abuse of court proceedings, amounted to putting the cart before the horse. But lawyer to the bank chief, Anthony Idigbe (SAN) asked the Court to discountenance the arguments canvassed against the application, stressing that granting bail lied in the inherent powers of the court.

Idigbe (SAN) further argued that his client’s summons for bail should be entertained before his notice of preliminary objection, as doing otherwise would trample on his fundamental human rights to fair hearing.
The judge subsequently adjourned ruling on the prosecution’s preliminary objection till May 20, 2011.

-Sunwp_posts