A High Court sitting in Abuja has on thursday granted bail to former Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris.
This is coming scarcely a week after the court remanded the former AGF in prison. The court had last week Friday ordered that Idris and his co-defendants; Godfrey Olusegun Akindele, Mohammed Kudu Usman and Gezawa Commodity Market and Exchange Ltd, be kept in Kuje Correctional facility pending the hearing of their bail applications.
Recall that the defendants are being prosecuted on a 14-count charge of stealing and criminal breach of trust to the tune of N109, 485,572,691.9.
However, the presiding judge, Justice Adeyemi Ajayi in his judgement on Thursday, adopted all the terms and conditions of the administrative bail the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission earlier gave the ex-AGF 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, state that the defendants misbehaved while on administrative bail”, Ajayi ruled.
Ajayi ordered that the defendants shall not leave the Federal Capital Territory without permission of the court, he also threatened to revoke bail of any of them who fail to appear for trail
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.
Ajayi gave the ruling on grounds that the allegations against the defendants are yet to be proven.
