Court grants suspended Accountant General bail over N109.4bn fraud

An Abuja High Court sitting at Maitama, on Thursday, granted bail to the former Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, for his alleged involvement in N109.4 billion fraud.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is prosecuting Idris and three other defendants, Godfrey Olusegun Akindele, Mohammed Kudu Usman and Gezawa Commodity Market and Exchange Ltd., on a 14-count charge of stealing and criminal breach of trust to the tune of N109, 485,572,691.

The court had last week Friday ordered that the accused persons be remanded in Kuje Correctional facility pending the hearing of their bail applications.

Presiding judge, Justice Adeyemi Ajayi, adopted all the terms and conditions of the administrative bail the EFCC earlier gave the ex-AGoF and his two co-defendants.

“In line with the due process and supremacy of the law, the Defendants are still entitled to bail, irrespective of the enormity of the allegations against them.

“The EFCC did not in any of its processes, stated that the defendants misbehaved while on administrative bail,” Ajayi ruled.

READ: Suspended Accountant-General, Idris, remanded in prison over N109.4bn fraud

Ajayi also ordered that the defendants shall not leave the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) without the court’s permission, threatening to revoke the bail of any of them who fail to appear for trial.

The court also stated that the defendants shall sign an undertaken that they will abide by the bail conditions by the EFCC.

Justice Ajayi also orders that the defendants should not have and shall not procure alternate passports until the case is expensed, having deposited their original passports to the commission.

He gave the ruling on grounds that the allegations against the defendants were yet to be proven.

The trial began immediately after the ruling on bail.