The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has arraigned a former Accountant General of Bauchi State, Yusuf Gokaru, before High Court number 6 in the state, over alleged N258 million fraud.
The former Accountant General and one Ibrahim Lele of the treasury department were arraigned on Wednesday before Justice A. H. Suleiman by the EFCC.
The duos were charged on 40 counts bordering on various allegations, including obtaining money by false pretense and concealing properties belonging to Bauchi state government.
The offences, contravene the provisions of section 7 sub 1 (a) (ii) of the Advanced Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act 2006 which are punishable under section 7 sub 2 of the same Act, according to the EFCC prosecutors.
All the accused pleaded not guilty before justice A. H. Suleiman.
Counsel to the defendants, Barrister Babangida Mohammed, requested the court to consider a bail application on behalf of the accused, citing health reasons.
Justice Suleiman granted the duos a N10 million bail with two sureties in like sum who must not be below grade level 14 and must also have landed properties in the Government Reserve Area (GRA) in Bauchi.
Barrister Ahmed Muntaka, counsel to the EFCC who told the court that since the defendants pleaded not guilty, the hearing be adjourned to another date to enable them bring their witnesses.
Speaking with newsmen shortly after the court’s sitting, the counsel to the EFCC, Barrister Ahmed Muntaka, “the World Bank, as part of the assistance it used to offer to certain states of the federation, gave Bauchi state government a certain huge amount of money and out of that huge amount of money, N258 million as contained in the charge were diverted by the persons before the court in various trenches.
“They raised some mandates and they would keep on withdrawing those mandates and at the same time, trying to remove the money from where it was lodged into a different account, thereby concealing the source of the money in order to perpetrate their own fraud.
“This is the basis upon bringing these charges the defendants before the court and they were duly arraigned before the court today”, he alleges.
The presiding Judge then adjourned the case to 28th April, 2020 for the commencement of trial.
