A Federal High Court on Tuesday
granted bail to a former Head of
Service of the Federation, Mr. Stephen
Oronsaye on self-recognition.
But the trial judge, Justice Gabriel
Kolawole, granted bail to Oronsaye’s co-accused, Osarenkhoe Afe, in the sum of
N50m with two sureties, one of whom must not be less than Grade Level 16 in
either federal or state government establishments.
The judge also ruled that one of
Afe’s sureties must have property worth N75m within Abuja.
He ordered that both Oronsaye and
Afe must deposit their passports and other travel documents with the court
registrar.
Justice Kolawole ordered that in the
event that the accused persons were unable to meet the bail conditions within
one week, they should be re-arrested and remanded in Kuje prison in Abuja.
Afe is the Managing Director of
Fredrick Hamilton Global Services Limited, a company named as the third accused
in the 24 counts preferred against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission.
The EFCC is prosecuting the accused
persons for allegedly defrauding the Federal Government to the tune of
N118,992,201.6, under the guise of paying the money in tranches for the
contract of biometric data capture project between March 2010 and December
2011.
The fraud was allegedly perpetrated
through awarding and payment for phoney contracts to nine companies including
Innovative Solutions, Fredrick Hamilton Global Serices, Xangee Technologies
Limited, Fatideck Ventures, Obalando Nigeria Enterprises, Moshfad Enterprises
and Fesbee Global Resources Limited.
Other companies through which the
accused persons allegedly siphoned the money from the Federal Government were
Jolance Integrated Concept Limited and M.OF Investment Limited.
There were new twists to the trial
on Tuesday, as Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team, Alhaji Abdulrasheed
Maina, sent a lawyer, Esther Uzoma, to court on Tuesday to debunk the
allegation that he was at large.
Tuesday’s proceedings before Justice
Gabriel Kolawole of a Federal High Court in Abuja were scheduled for the
hearing of the bail applications filed by Oronsaye and other accused persons.
Maina is not named as an accused
person in the case, but his name appears in many of the 24 counts preferred
against the accused persons as an accomplice who is on the run.
Uzoma said it was unfair to describe
her client as being at large when he was never invited by the EFCC since 2011
when the anti-graft agency started taking statements from people concerned.
“No single invitation since 2011,
yet they said he is at large. That is unfair,” Uzoma said.
But the prosecuting counsel for the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs, insisted that
Maina had been at large.
“It is a good development. He
(Maina) has not retired but he is not at his offices. He has been in Dubai,”
he said.
Jacobs urged the judge to extract an
undertaking from Uzoma to the effect that she would produce her client in
court.
Though Uzoma agreed to accept
service for the charges on behalf of her client, she insisted that the EFCC
should follow the rules of the court on how to bring PRTT boss to court.
On the bail applications filed by
Oronsaye and the other accused person, Jacobs said he was not willing to oppose
the applications since the court had earlier, on July 13 after the accused
persons’ arraignment, released them to their lawyers upon an undertaking that
they would be produced in court on Tuesday.
He, however, opposed the request by
the defence lawyers, Kanu Agabi (SAN) and Oluwole Aladedoye, that the accused
persons should be granted bail based on self-recognition.
Jacobs insisted that the court
should impose conditions that would ensure the accused persons’ attendance in
court for their trial.
Source: Punch Newspaper.
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