COURT GRANTS FEMI FANI-KAYODE AND OTHERS BAIL

Former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, has been granted bail in the sum of N250m by the Federal High Court in Lagos.Femi Fani-Kayode who is being tried by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for an alleged fraud of N4.9bn.

Justice Muslim Hassan granted the bail with two sureties in like sum and ordered Fani-Kayode to deposit his passport in the custody of the court pending the outcome of the case.

The sureties, the court said, must be owners of landed properties within the court’s jurisdiction.

They were also to present evidence of tax clearance in the state.

Also admitted to bail in the same conditions were a former Minister of State for Finance, Nemandi Usman, and one Danjuma Yusuf, who were standing trial along with Fani-Kayode.

Joined as the 4th defendant in the charge was a company, Joint Trust Dimension Nigeria Limited.

The accused were on June 28, 2016 arraigned before Justice Hassan on 17 counts bordering on conspiracy, unlawful retention of proceeds of theft and money laundering.

Fani-Kayode, who was the spokesperson for former President Goodluck Jonathan’s campaign organisation in the 2015 general elections, was accused of conspiring with the others to directly and indirectly retain various sums which the EFCC claimed they ought to have reasonably known were proceeds of theft.

The accused persons were said to have allegedly committed the offences between January 8, 2015 and March 25, 2015 in the build-up to the general elections.

In one of the counts, the EFCC alleged that Fani-Kayode, who it listed as the 2nd defendant in the charge sheet, and his co-defendants conspired among themselves to “indirectly retain the sum of N1,500, 000,000.00, which sum you reasonably ought to have known formed part of the proceeds of an unlawful act to wit: stealing.”