Former Jigawa state governor, Alhaji Sule Lamido, his two sons: Aminu and Mustapha, as well as Aminu Wada Abubakar and one Bartholomew Darlington Agoha have returned to the Federal High Court in Abuja on an amended 27-count charge bordering on corruption and money laundering. They are being charged by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission ( EFCC).
The other companies arraigned along with them were companies through which they allegedly perpetrated the fraud, including Bamaina Holdings Limited, Bamaina Company Nigeria Limited, Bamaina Aluminium Limited and Speeds International Limited.
Lamido and his co-accused had been arraigned before Justice Evelyn Anyadike of the Federal High Court, Kano State, on July 9 2015 for allegedly misappropriating funds belonging to Jigawa State.
Their case was later transferred to the Federal High Court, Abuja, where Justice Gabriel Kolawole, a vacation judge, granted the accused persons bail, and adjourned the matter to September 22, 2015.
At the resumed hearing today, presided over by Justice Ademola, counsel to the EFCC, Chile Okoroma, presented the court with the amended charge, dated September 15, 2015, which added Agoha, manager of Speeds International Limited, as one of the accused persons.
The hearing which commenced at about 9.11am was, however, adjourned briefly to allow the registry to assign a new charge number to the amended charge sheet, since the case was originally heard in Kano.
On resumption, the charges were read to the accused persons.
One of the charges read: “That you Alhaji Sule Lamido (while being Governor of Jigawa State, Nigeria), Aminu Sule Lamido, Mustapha Sule Lamido, Bamaina Holdings Limited, Bamaina Company Nigeria Limited, and Speeds International Limited between 15th October and 18th December, 2008 within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did convert an aggregate sum of N124,649,915 paid by Dantata and Sawoe Construction Company Nigeria Limited into the account of Speeds International Limited. [myad]
