A Federal high court sitting in the Kaduna State capital has granted bail to Jimi Lawal, a former adviser to former Governor Nasir El-Rufai, and three others arraigned on charges of alleged fraud.
The defendants, Lawal along with a former Accountant General of Kaduna State, Umar Waziri, Yusuf Inuwa; and Solar Life Nigeria Limited were arraigned by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) on allegations of diverting N64.8 million.
The ICPC alleged that the accused diverted the funds in three tranches of N10,000,000, N47,84,000 and N7.32 million respectively.
Ruling on the bail application filed by counsel for the defendants on Tuesday, the court stipulated that the defendants must provide two sureties, each with N50 million in like sum.
Additionally, the sureties are required to own landed property in Kaduna, with Certificates of Occupancy to be verified by the court.
Furthermore, the court ordered the defendants to deposit their international passports, national passports, green passports and official passports, if any, with the Deputy Chief Registrar of the Federal High Court in Kaduna.
Counsel for the Defendants, Johnson Usman (SAN), expressed optimism that his clients will perfect the bail conditions as soon as possible.
“The four defendants have been arraigned, and we moved a motion for their bail, which the court granted. However, pending the perfection of their bail conditions, they are to remain in prison custody. We are optimistic this will be completed promptly, possibly by tomorrow,” he said.
The court has adjourned the case till March 26 and 27, 2025 for trial.
