N40BN SCAM: Bankole gets bail, re-arrested, arraigned

Posted by admin EFCC Politics, House, Legislature, Top Stories Tuesday, June 14th, 2011

TRAVAILS of the embattled former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, were further compounded by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, yesterday, as he was again arraigned before a Federal Capital Territory High Court in Apo, alongside his erstwhile deputy, Alhaji Usman Bayero Nafada.
They took turns to plead not guilty to a fresh 17-count criminal charge that was preferred against them by the anti-graft agency.

Bankole and Nafada were specifically accused of breaching public trust by agreeing to approve the allowances and ‘running costs’ of members of the sixth session of the House of Representatives in violation of the approved remuneration package for political, public and judicial office holders by the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission as well as the extant Revised Financial Regulations of the Federal Government of Nigeria, 2009, and thereby committed an offence contrary to section 97(1) of the Penal Code Act, Cap 532, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (Abuja) 1990 and punishable under section 315 of the same Penal Code Act.
Hope of temporary freedom

Meanwhile, hopes of the former Speaker to regain temporary freedom from EFCC’s custody where he has already spent eight days, crumbled yesterday, as he was swiftly re-arrested by security operatives from the anti-graft agency, barely 10 minutes after he was granted bail by a Federal High Court in Abuja where he was ab_initio arraigned over a separate 16_count criminal charge bothering on alleged contract inflation.

Former House of Representatives Deputy Speaker, Usman Bayero Nafada arraigned at the Federal High Court, Abuja, on corruption charges by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, yesterday. Photo: Gbemiga Olamikan

Bankole was yet to perfect any of the conditions upon which the trial court granted him bail yesterday, before scores of armed mobile police men swooped on him shortly after the trial judge, Justice Donatus Okorowo, terminated court proceedings around 11:16am.

The accused person was immediately whisked away in a white coaster bus marked ABUJA-BR-739-BWR, amid protests from his lead counsel, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN, and his teeming supporters, who besieged the court premises with a view to celebrating his release from EFCC detention.

The Federal High Court Judge, hitherto allowed Bankole on bail in the sum of N5 million, even as he was asked to produce a responsible surety in like sum.

While ordering both the accused and his surety to surrender all their travelling documents to the court registrar, Justice Okorowo further stressed that the surety must not only be resident within the Federal Capital Territory, but also an owner of landed property in Abuja.

Tendering of property

He added that the title deed of the said property must be tendered to the Deputy Chief Registrar of the High Court, for authentication.

The Judge also ordered the EFCC to go ahead and remand the former Speaker in its custody if he defaulted on any of the bail conditions initially handed to him by the trial High Court.

However, at 3:12 pm yesterday, both Bankole and his former deputy, Nafada, were marshalled into another High Court complex at Apo, an Abuja suburb, where they were subsequently docked and remanded in the custody of the EFCC till Thursday, June 16, when their formal bail applications will be determined.

The prosecuting counsel, Festus Keyamo, had pleaded with the trial judge in the second case, Justice Suleiman Belgore, to go ahead and remand the duo in Kuje Prison, contending that the EFCC detention facility may not have enough space to accommodate them, in view of so many people he said would be arrested by the commission in the coming days.

Keyamo told the court that the agency has concluded plans to arrest some other persons who he said participated in the sharing of over N40 billion loan that was illegally secured from two new generation banks between May 12, 2010 and sometime in May, 2011.

He said: “My lord, we humbly apply that the accused persons be remanded in Kuje prison considering that the number of people involved in this fraud is too many and there is no space to accommodate them all.

“We have charged them to court as required by the law so they are no longer our tenant. Our contention is that prison is where everybody charged to court goes after arraignment to await bail, there should not be an exception for either ‘Mr A’ or ‘Mr B’. Since our cell is already filled up, my lord we most humbly pray that the accused persons be accordingly remanded in Prison custody pending the hearing and determination of their bail applications.”

Keyamo had earlier opposed oral bail application that was made by counsel to the two accused persons, Chief Awomolo, SAN, who urged the trial Judge to take cognizance of the antecedents of the accused persons and grant them bail on self recognition.

Plea for pity

Awomolo told the trial court to consider the fact that the first accused person, Bankole, has been in detention since June 5 when he was arrested by operatives of the anti-graft agency, even as he pleaded the Judge to take pity on him and allow him to go home and see his two kids and aged parents who he said has been highly traumatized over the current ordeal he is passing through.

His application was vehemently opposed by the EFCC lawyer, Keyamo, who challenged the propriety of granting the accused persons bail on the basis of an oral submission by their counsel, noting that he would need at least two clear days to respond to whatever averment they made in support of their bail request.

After listening to arguments from both parties, yesterday, Justice Suleiman, who said he was satisfied that the anti_graft agency had successfully established a prima_facie case against the accused persons, declined to accede to their oral bail application.

Consequently, he ordered the defence counsel to file formal bail applications for the embattled duo by today, just as he adjourned the case till Thursday to take arguments of parties on the issue of bail.

EFCC alleged that the accused persons being entrusted with House of Representatives’ Account No. 00390070000018 with the United Bank of Africa, Plc and the Overhead Account of the House of Representatives with First Bank of Nigeria, Plc, properties of the Federal Government of Nigeria, dishonestly used the accounts to obtain a loans totalling to about N40 billion.

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