Lamido, and his two sons, Aminu and Mustapha, accused of fraud,
remanded in prison custody in Kano till September 28.
The former governor was arraigned on Thursday alongside his
children for receiving N1.35 billion kickback from
a government
contractor.
The money was allegedly paid into accounts controlled by the
governor and his sons.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is accusing the four
suspects of money laundering, amongst other charges.
They were due for arraignment Wednesday, but the court appearance
was rescheduled to Thursday (today).
Security was stepped up around the court vicinity in Kano ahead of
the hearing Thursday.
Delivering a ruling, Justice Evelyn Anyadike ordered that the four
accused persons be remanded in a Kano Prison Custody because the
EFCC said they lacked enough facilities to accommodate them.
She rejected the pleas of defence counsel, Effiong Effiong, SAN, that
the accused be kept at EFCC custody, saying the commission had
complained of inadequate facilities.
Twenty eight-count charge bordering on a number of alleged breach
of trust by Sule Lamido, Aminu Sule Lamido, Mustapha Sule Lamido
and one Aminu Wada Abubakar, was read in court.
They pleaded not guilty after the charges were read to them.
The case involved N1.351 billion.
The judge ruled that the accused persons be remanded pending the
hearing of their bail applications.
Earlier, the defence counsel, Mr. Effiong, had argued that remanding
the accused persons in prison would amount to trampling on their
fundamental human rights.
He pleaded they be sent to either of EFCC facilities in Abuja or Kano.
However, the counsel to the EFCC, Chile Okoroma, objected to the
plea, saying EFCC facilities were full to capacity both in Kano and
Abuja.
The case was adjourned to September 28 for ruling on bail
applications.
There was pandemonium in court between those supporting Mr.
Lamido and those against him, leading the police to fire teargas
canisters into the air to disperse the crowd.
Mr. Lamido, his sons and Mr. Abubakar are accused of using their
positions to siphon Jigawa State funds.
Major dailies had in 2014 reported how a construction firm,
Dantata and Sawoe, paid N1.3 billion as 10 percent kickback for
contracts it won, into accounts owned by the governor and his sons.
It also showed how, between 2007, when Mr. Lamido assumed office,
and 2014, Dantata and Sawoe Construction Company was awarded
contracts amounting to N13.5 billion.
The state government made payments for the contracts to the
construction firm through five banks – Zenith, Access, Diamond,
Sterling and UBA.
Within the same period, according to a probe of the transactions by
the EFCC, Dantata and Sawoe paid out over N1.3 billion into the
accounts of companies in which the governor and his sons had
interest.
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