By Bashir Mohammed, Aliyu Askira and Muhammad Aliyu, Kano
A Federal High Court judge in Kano, Justice Evylene Anyadeke, yesterday ordered that the immediate past governor of Jigawa state, Alhaji Sule Lamido, his two sons and one other person should be remanded in prison custody for one and a half months over a 28-count charge of alleged corruption and money laundering amounting to N1.3 billion.
Lamido was arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) alongside his two sons, Mustapha Sule Lamido and Aminu Sule Lamido, as well as one Aminu Wada Abubakar.
They were to be arraigned on Wednesday, but the court appearance was rescheduled to Thursday.
Security was stepped up around the court vicinity ahead of yesterday’s hearing.
The EFCC’s counsel, Mr. Chile Okoroma, told the court that the former governor had, between 2007 and 2014, used his position to launder the money through the award of contracts to three companies owned by him, using his two sons as front.
The companies are Bamaina Holdings Limited, Bamaina Company Nigeria Limited, Bamaina Aluminum Limited and Speeds International Limited.
According to him, Lamido had engaged in private business in violation of his revered official status as a public officer aimed at concealing the illicit origin of the said sum.
One of the counts in the charge reads:
“That you, Alhaji Sule Lamido, while being the Governor of Jigawa state, Nigeria, Aminu Sule Lamido, Mustapha Sule Lamido, Bamaina Holdings Limited, Bamaina Company Nigeria Limited and Speeds International Limited, between 15th October and 18th December, 2008, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, did convert an aggregate sum of N124, 649, 915 (One hundred and twenty-four million, six hundred and forty-nine thousand, nine hundred and fifteen naira) paid by Dantata & Sawoe Limited into the account of Speeds International Limited domiciled with an old generation bank at Kano, which fund you reasonably ought to have known to be proceeds of an unlawful act of Alhaji Sule Lamido who was a public officer within the meaning of the Code of Conduct for Public Officers as prescribed under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended ), to wit, engaging in private business by a public officer, using the said company in which he is a director and a shareholder, and to whose account he is a signatory; with the aim of concealing the illicit origin of the said sum and you thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 14 (A) of the Money Laundering Act, 2004.”
The defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Their counsel, Mr. Offiong E. Offiong, SAN, while seeking bail for his clients, told the court that he had filed an application for the bail, stressing that the alleged offences were bailable.
He also told the court that as citizens of the country his clients were entitled to the right of liberty and freedom under the law.
Objecting to the bail application, however, prosecuting counsel, Chile Okoroma, said the application did not follow the proper legal procedure, hence the need for the accused persons to be refused bail.
He also requested for time to respond to the application.
Okoroma prayed the court to remand the accused persons in prison custody as the EFCC’s holding facilities in Abuja and Kano were already overstretched.
In her ruling, Justice Anyadeke rejected the bail application on the ground that it was not filed in line with proper legal procedures.
She, therefore, ordered the four accused persons to be remanded in prison custody till September 28, 2015 for resumption of hearing, pending consideration of their bail application.
Yesterday’s arraignment of the Lamidos was not without incident as a pandemonium at the court between those supporting Lamido and those against him ensued.
Hundreds of Lamido’s supporters staged a peaceful protest chanting various slogans of praise for the former governor as they accused the EFCC of a witch-hunt. Some were saying God’s willing he will become the president of Nigeria come 2019.
The placards carried inscriptions such as: “Tackle Insecurity First Before This Witch-hunt’’, “Sule Lamido’s Arrest Is Politically Motivated,’’ “Nigerians Need
Justice Not Injustice,’’ among others.
Our correspondent reports that some commissioners and aides of the former governor were barred from entering the courtroom. They included former commissioners of finance Nasiru Roni; Water Resources, Engineer Jijiri Dutse; Empowerment, Abdullahi Mago; health, Dr. Tafida Abubakar, and a one-time minister during the Jonathan administration, Hajiya Hauwa Lawan Baffa, as well as several special aides to the former governor.
The situation became rowdy, leading the police to fire into the air to disperse the crowd just as they beat some of the people who came to witness the proceedings.
Reacting to the arraignment, the chairman of the PDP Youth Media Forum in the state, Alhaji Muhammad Hararu Garin Chiroma, described it as politically motivated and a witch-hunt by the APC government currently in power.
Speaking to Blueprint at the premises of the court, he wondered why “only Lamido was arrested while other governors who squandered public funds were allowed to go scot-free”.
He argued that Lamido was a nationalist per excellence, one who believes in one Nigeria.
Hararu stated that the arraignment of the former governor would only boost his image and enhance his political fortunes in the near future.
The chairman further explained that considering Lamido’s contributions to the entrenchment of democracy
and its sustenance in Nigeria, “any right thinking person will regard his incarceration as a political vendetta.”
Lamido, who ruled Jigawa state for eight years and also served under former President Olusegun Obasanjo as foreign affairs minister, is a long-time critic of President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
His travails began in 2012 when Aminu Sule Lamido was arrested by EFCC operatives at the Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, for failing to declare the sum of $40,000.
Aminu was prosecuted and convicted, with 50 percent of the undeclared sum forfeited to the federal government.
The EFCC’s spokesman, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, said in a statement yesterday: “The investigation into the source of the funds led investigators into the closely guarded web of corruption and money laundering involving members of the former first family of Jigawa state and their cronies.”
