By our reporter| A federal high court in Abuja on Friday ordered that a former Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, and three other defendants be remanded in the Kuje Correctional Facility.
Idris and his co-defendants were arraigned before Justice Adeyemi Ajayi following charges of stealing and criminal breach of trust to the tune of N109.4 billion levelled against them by the EFCC.
The former AGF and his fellow respondents – Olusegun Akindele, Mohammed Usman, and Gezawa Commodity Market and Exchange Limited, earlier pleaded not guilty to the 14-count charge.
Counsel to the AGF, Chris Uche, SAN had prayed the court to allow the defendant to continue enjoying the administrative bail granted to him by the antigraft agency.
Uche added that the EFCC has the defendant’s international passport, and as such, they should be allowed to come back on Monday to take their bail application.
The lawyer asked the court to permit the defendants to come back on Monday and not remand them at any correctional facility.
However, the EFCC’s counsel, Rotimi Jacobs, posited that the administrative bail ended once the charge was filed.
Delivering her ruling, Justice Adeyemi Ajayi held that the court is not a puppet to dance to the rhythm of public opinions.
Interjecting, Idris’ counsel pleaded with the court that due to the porous security nature of the Kuje correctional facility, his client should be remanded in EFCC custody.
Justice Ajayi however, repeatedly ordered the defence counsel to sit down, stressing that nobody can overturn her orders before her.
She subsequently adjourned proceedings till the 27th of July for hearing of bail applications.
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