Alhaji Muhammad Bashir Sa’idu, former Chief of Staff to Malam Nasiru El-Rufai, the immediate past Governor of Kaduna State, is to remain in prison custody after a state high court denied him bail in the money laundering case filed against him.
Recall that the court had adjourned the ruling on a bail application for Sa’idu to January 16, 2025. However, when the case came up on Thursday, the former Chief of Staff was denied bail.
The court delivered ruling on the application for refusal on the bail principally on the ground that a formal charge had been filed at the Kaduna State High Court II against Sa’idu.
The court asked the applicant to go to the court where the filed charge was pending to apply for bail.
Kaduna State Director of Public Prosecution, Samson Irimiya (Esq), who represented the state government in court, told journalists that the arraignment of the former Chief of Staff would come up on Januar 21, 2025, before Justice Isa Aliyu.
Irimiya said, “The bail application ruling was delivered refusing the bail application principally on the ground that since a formal charge had been filed by us, it is better that the Applicant goes to the court where the charge is filed and pending to apply for bail.”
Counsel for Sai’du, Oladipo Tolani SAN, also confirmed that the court directed that they should take the bail application to the court where the proper charges had been filed.
Sa’idu, also a former Commissioner of Finance, was initially dragged to the state high court for money laundering.
A security source had disclosed to journalists that, “The former Chief of Staff sold 45 million US dollars in hard currency belonging to the Kaduna State Government, equivalent to N18.4 billion at the significantly undervalued rate of N410 per dollar. This was instead of the parallel market rate of N498 per dollar, with criminal intent, resulting in a N3.9 billion loss to the government in 2022.”
The prosecution further alleged that the N3.9 billion discrepancy was laundered by Sa’idu, in violation of Section 18 of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022. (Daily Trust)
