The Federal High Court in Sokoto on Thursday granted N25m bail to a former deputy governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Mukhtar Shagari, who was charged with an alleged fraud of N500m.
A Federal High Court sitting in Sokoto had on Tuesday remanded Shagari in police custody over alleged N500 million illegal dealings with former Petroleum Minister, Diezani Madueke.
Also remanded were Ibrahim Gidado, a former Information Commissioner, Sokoto State Chairman and Treasurer of PDP, Ibrahim Milgoma, Nasiru Dhalhatu and the PDP the state governorship candidate in 2015, Abdallah Wali.
Shagari and the others were arraigned on Tuesday on five charges of money laundering by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
The anti-graft agency accused them of receiving N500m from a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, in the build-up to the 2015 general elections.
Ruling on the defendants’ bail applications on Thursday, Justice Idrissa Kogo said they were to produce two sureties, who must be civil servants on Grade Level 13 and must reside within the jurisdiction of the court.
The sureties, the judge said, must also be owners of landed properties worth the bail sum.
The judge ordered the defendants to deposit their passports in the court’s custody pending the conclusion of the case.
He adjourned till July 5, 2018, for trial.
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