EFCC re-arraigns Lamido, sons on amended charges

FORMER governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, his sons Mustapha and Aminu, alongside seven others, were yesterday re-arraigned by the the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), in Abuja on a 27-count amended charges after the case had been transferred from Kano to Abuja.

EFCC’s spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, informed that the father and sons were arraigned before Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court, Abuja, alongside Aminu Wada Abubakar and Bartholomew Darlington Agoha, and companies such as Bamaina Holdings Limited, Bamaina Company Nigeria Limited, Bamaina Aluminium Limited and Speeds International Limited. The allegations border on corruption and money laundering.

Lamido and his co-accused had been arraigned before Justice Evelyn Anyadike of the Federal High Court, Kano, 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 on Tuesday, 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.
They all pleaded not guilty to the charges after which Justice Adeniyi Ademola adjourned till October 21 and 22 for trial.