₦airaland Forum

...adjourns to Feb 24 for continuation of hearing


The Federal High Court, Abuja, on Friday, granted the immediate past Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, bail in the sum of N500 million with two sureties in like sum.

This was after the former governor had pleaded not guilty to the 19-count charges brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

He is facing an alleged money laundering trial to the tune of N80bn but pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

When the case was called for hearing, on Friday, Counsel for the EFCC, Kemi Pinheiro, SAN, notified the court of the intention of the Prosecution to withdraw an earlier application for abridgment of the earlier date fixed for arraignment.

He said the application had been overtaken by events. The Defendant's Counsels, led by Joseph Daudu, SAN, did not object and Justice Emeka Nwite, accordingly granted the request.

After the Defendant had taken his plea, Daudu SAN made clarifications on the reasons he had not been in court during the previous hearings.

"I would like to place on record that for any impression that might have been created that the Defendant did not wish to appear before your lordship, coincidentally, the ruling on my lord's sitting this morning dealt with the issue of jurisdiction.

"What the Defendant did was to ask his counsel to challenge the jurisdiction of the court, which got to the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.

"So it was not a wishful disrespect but he was only trying to defend himself. So we all hold your lordship in high esteem. If that impression must have been, he should not have presented himself for arraignment. That episode is gone and things are clearer now," the Counsel stated.

While moving an application for bail, he assured that the former Governor would always be present in court for the trial.

"I am saying this with the highest sense of responsibility that the defendant, a two-term governor of Kogi State, who travelled only two times out of his eight years in service, will always be present in court at all times.

"There should be no apprehension that he will jump bail. So we urge your lordship to grant us very reasonable conditions of bail such that he will be able to bear," the Defendant's Counsel said.

He commended the Prosecution Counsel, saying he had conducted himself in the best tradition because the matter was not a do-or-die one.

He said they had agreed that the counsels would not stress his lordship over the issue of bail.

The Prosecution Counsel concurred.

Pinheiro, SAN, said, "I must express my honour to the very eminent lead senior counsel. He is a man of immense stature, not because of his size.

"I do respect him as president of NBA. I also confirm that we have been engaging in series of discussion to ease the burden on your lordship in compliance with Rule 26 of Rules of Professional Ethics.

"I also note that your lordship had delivered not less than five rulings in this matter and it is our aim to ease the work.
We are prosecutors not persecutors and EFCC is a professional commission, a prosecutorial and not prosecutorial commission," he said.

He added, "We accept the assurances of the very eminent SAN that the defendant will make himself available subject to your lordship's discretionary terms that may be imposed.

"By so doing, we will ease the burden on the court. Therefore, we will not be opposing the eminent SAN's submission."

The Prosecution Counsel said though they had filed a counter-affidavit, they would not oppose the bail, going by the assurances of the learned SAN.

Ruling on the bail application, Justice Nwite said, "I have listened to the submissions of both counsels. It is not in dispute that both counsels have filed applications in respect of this.

"Based on the account exhibited by learned counsel for the defendant, which was exhibited and supported by prosecution counsel, I am minded to change my earlier stand on this matter."

He granted the Defendant N500 million bail with two sureties.

"Sureties must be landed property owners within the jurisdiction of this court. They must swear to affidavit of means. The title deeds of priority to be verified by the court registrar," he said.

The Defendant was also asked to submit his international passport while he would remain at the Kuje Correctional Centre pending the perfection of the bail conditions.

Recall that the ex-governor was earlier remanded in a fresh N110bn charge by the EFCC, pending his bail application.

We already knew this even before it started.

Lies

Charade prosecution

The law is an Ass in Nigeria honestly, look at P.diddy upon all his wealth and influence he's still behind bars because of his heinous crimes but here in Nigeria criminals will continue to parade freely in the country, in fact they are not afraid of the courts because they all know that it's just a place to pay their fine. Someone that evaded arrest for months after stealing billions. Is now granted bail. But Nnamdi Kanu that spoke the truth about this zoo, is still behind bars, including Dele farotimi. Yet some idiots will say that the worst democracy is better than the best Military regime.

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[quote author=themomentng

Recall that the ex-governor was earlier remanded in a fresh N110bn charge by the EFCC, pending his bail

Case closed

themomentng:
...adjourns to Feb 24 for continuation of hearing


The Federal High Court, Abuja, on Friday, granted the immediate past Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, bail in the sum of N500 million with two sureties in like sum.

This was after the former governor had pleaded not guilty to the 19-count charges brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

He is facing an alleged money laundering trial to the tune of N80bn but pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

When the case was called for hearing, on Friday, Counsel for the EFCC, Kemi Pinheiro, SAN, notified the court of the intention of the Prosecution to withdraw an earlier application for abridgment of the earlier date fixed for arraignment.

He said the application had been overtaken by events. The Defendant's Counsels, led by Joseph Daudu, SAN, did not object and Justice Emeka Nwite, accordingly granted the request.

After the Defendant had taken his plea, Daudu SAN made clarifications on the reasons he had not been in court during the previous hearings.

"I would like to place on record that for any impression that might have been created that the Defendant did not wish to appear before your lordship, coincidentally, the ruling on my lord's sitting this morning dealt with the issue of jurisdiction.

"What the Defendant did was to ask his counsel to challenge the jurisdiction of the court, which got to the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.

"So it was not a wishful disrespect but he was only trying to defend himself. So we all hold your lordship in high esteem. If that impression must have been, he should not have presented himself for arraignment. That episode is gone and things are clearer now," the Counsel stated.

While moving an application for bail, he assured that the former Governor would always be present in court for the trial.

"I am saying this with the highest sense of responsibility that the defendant, a two-term governor of Kogi State, who travelled only two times out of his eight years in service, will always be present in court at all times.

"There should be no apprehension that he will jump bail. So we urge your lordship to grant us very reasonable conditions of bail such that he will be able to bear," the Defendant's Counsel said.

He commended the Prosecution Counsel, saying he had conducted himself in the best tradition because the matter was not a do-or-die one.

He said they had agreed that the counsels would not stress his lordship over the issue of bail.

The Prosecution Counsel concurred.

Pinheiro, SAN, said, "I must express my honour to the very eminent lead senior counsel. He is a man of immense stature, not because of his size.

"I do respect him as president of NBA. I also confirm that we have been engaging in series of discussion to ease the burden on your lordship in compliance with Rule 26 of Rules of Professional Ethics.

"I also note that your lordship had delivered not less than five rulings in this matter and it is our aim to ease the work.
We are prosecutors not persecutors and EFCC is a professional commission, a prosecutorial and not prosecutorial commission," he said.

He added, "We accept the assurances of the very eminent SAN that the defendant will make himself available subject to your lordship's discretionary terms that may be imposed.

"By so doing, we will ease the burden on the court. Therefore, we will not be opposing the eminent SAN's submission."

The Prosecution Counsel said though they had filed a counter-affidavit, they would not oppose the bail, going by the assurances of the learned SAN.

Ruling on the bail application, Justice Nwite said, "I have listened to the submissions of both counsels. It is not in dispute that both counsels have filed applications in respect of this.

"Based on the account exhibited by learned counsel for the defendant, which was exhibited and supported by prosecution counsel, I am minded to change my earlier stand on this matter."

He granted the Defendant N500 million bail with two sureties.

"Sureties must be landed property owners within the jurisdiction of this court. They must swear to affidavit of means. The title deeds of priority to be verified by the court registrar," he said.

The Defendant was also asked to submit his international passport while he would remain at the Kuje Correctional Centre pending the perfection of the bail conditions.

Recall that the ex-governor was earlier remanded in a fresh N110bn charge by the EFCC, pending his bail application.

lamba

Mtschew.. chicken change.
That's less than 1% of what he's being accused of stealing.

The evil party call APC and the drug master and certificate forger has succeeded in turning our judiciary into a full political party.

Nigeria

Our judiciary is a joke

Jasix:
We already knew this even before it started.

Smh. I do not blame you, many of you are just naive. Just pray you don't get into criminal cases. What you just read in 2 minutes and concluded that it was easy had taken very long hours of hardwork.

Yahaya Bello is in serious trouble and trust me when I tell you not to make light of it. He will vomit all, the lawyers will rip him off and he still likely be convicted.

The best thing to do is to finish your terms and go home in peace to be with your family but the moment you are in problems that he is currently facing, sọ pe otilọ.

Case close

End of discussion

helinues:
Charade prosecution

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