Ex-Jigawa Gov., Turaki Remanded At Kuje Prison

Senator Saminu Turaki, ex-governor of Jigawa
State.
A Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday ordered
that a former Governor of Jigawa State, Saminu
Turaki be remanded at Kuje Prison, Abuja as he
could not meet his bail condition over N37bn
money laundering case.
This is coming barely five days after a High Court
of the Federal Capital Territory, Maitama, Abuja,
granted bail to the former governor.
Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court
granted bail to the ex-governor on fresh bail
conditions on Tuesday, but ordered the defendant
to remain in Kuje Prisons, Abuja, pending when
the bail conditions were met.
According to PUNCH, Dimgba gave the order
shortly after the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission re-arraigned Turaki and three
companies on 32 counts of money laundering
offences involving about N37bn.
Turaki was said to have allegedly committed the
offences between 2006 and 2007 while in office.
Turaki, alongside his co-defendants — INC Natural
Resources Ltd., Arkel Construction Nigeria Ltd and
Wildcat Construction Ltd — were earlier arraigned
before the Dutse, Jigawa State Division of the
Federal High Court, in 2011.
But he was said to have since evaded trial until
the EFCC, acting on an arrest warrant issued
against Turaki by the court in Dutse about three
years ago, arrested him on July 4, 2017, at an
event in Abuja.
While the EFCC was facilitating how to produce
him before the court in Dutse, the judge went on
his annual vacation and Turaki then filed a rights
enforcement suit before the FCT High Court in
Abuja, seeking an order of the court releasing him
from the anti-graft agency’s custody.
He also filed an interlocutory application which he
urged the court to consider before the hearing of
the main suit.
The application was opposed by the EFCC on the
grounds that with Turaki’s antecedent of jumping
bail earlier granted him six years ago by the
Federal High Court in Dutse and his evasion of the
arrest warrant issued by the same court about
three years ago, he would likely jump bail again.
But in his ruling on Thursday, Justice Yusuf Halilu
of the FCT High Court granted bail to the ex-
governor on conditions which merely required him
to submit his travel documents to the registry of
the court, produce “two reasonable sureties”
residing in Abuja, and sign a register to be
opened at the EFCC’s office every two weeks.
But instead of releasing him, the EFCC filed afresh
in the Federal High Court in Abuja, the same set of
charges already pending against the defendants
before the court in Dutse.
The anti-graft agency then re-arraigned Turaki
and the three companies before Justice Dimgba in
Abuja, being the only judge sitting as a vacation
judge in the northern region of the country while
the other Federal High Court judges proceed on
vacation.
After Turaki pleaded not guilty to the 32 counts on
Tuesday, Justice Dimgba said he was inclined to
granting bail to the ex-governor “in deference” to
the earlier bail granted the defendant by Justice
Halilu of the FCT High Court.
He asked the prosecution and the defence led by
Mr. Ahmed Raji (SAN), to agree on the bail
conditions to be imposed on the defendant.