The Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Tuesday, September 22, 2015 arraigned a former
governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, his two sons - Aminu Sule Lamido and
Mustapha Sule Lamido, Aminu Wada Abubakar and Batholomew Darlington Agoha,
before Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on a 27-count
amended charge bordering on corruption and money laundering.
The other companies
arraigned along with them were companies through which they allegedly
perpetrated the fraud.
The companies are Bamaina
Holdings Limited, Bamaina Company Nigeria Limited, Bamaina Aluminium Limited
and Speeds International Limited.
Lamido and his co-accused
had been arraigned before Justice Evelyn Anyadike of the Federal High Court,
Kano State, on July 9 2015 for allegedly misappropriating funds belonging to
Jigawa State.
Their case was later
transferred to the Federal High Court, Abuja, where Justice Gabriel Kolawole, a
vacation judge, granted the accused persons bail, and adjourned the matter to
September 22, 2015.
At the resumed hearing
today, presided over by Justice Ademola, counsel to the EFCC, Chile Okoroma,
presented the court with the amended charge, dated September 15, 2015, which
added Agoha, manager of Speeds International Limited, as one of the accused
persons.
The hearing which commenced
at about 9.11am was, however, adjourned briefly to allow the registry to assign
a new charge number to the amended charge sheet, since the case was originally
heard in Kano.
On resumption, the charges
were read to the accused persons.
One of the charges read:
“That you Alhaji Sule Lamido (while being 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 paid by Dantata
and Sawoe Construction Company Nigeria Limited into the account of Speeds
International Limited.”
Another charge read: “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 8th
January and 10th December, 2013 within the jurisdiction of this
Honbourable Court took possession of an aggregate sum of N101,580,300 paid by
Dantata and Sawoe Construction Company Nigeria Limited into the account of
Bamaina Holdings Limited.”
They all pleaded not guilty
to the charges.
Justice Adeniyi Ademola,
thereafter, adjourned till October 21 and 22 for trial.
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