EFCC re-arraigns ex-governor Lamido, sons, others for corruption charges

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Tuesday, re-arraigned a former governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, his two sons – Aminu Sule Lamido and Mustapha Sule Lamido, Aminu Wada Abubakar and Batholomew Darlington Agoha, before a Federal High Court in Abuja.

The former governor and his co-accused were slammed with a 27-count amended charge bordering on corruption and money laundering.

Also arraigned along with them were companies through which they allegedly perpetrated the fraud.
The companies are Bamaina Holdings Limited, Bamaina Company Nigeria Limited, Bamaina Aluminium Limited and Speeds International Limited.

It would be recalled that Lamido and his co-accused were arraigned before Justice Evelyn Anyadike of the Federal High Court, Kano State, on July 9 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 them bail, and adjourned the matter till Tuesday.

At the resumed hearing of the case now before Justice Ademola Adeniyi, 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 9.11 a.m. 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 and they all pleaded not guilty.
The court, thereafter, adjourned till October 21 and 22 for trial.