Court Denies Bail to El-Rufai’s Former Chief of Staff, Saidu

Bashir Saidu, the former chief of staff of Nasir El-Rufai, the state’s immediate past governor, filed a bail application, but it was denied by a Federal High Court in Kaduna.

According to information obtained, Saidu, a former El-Rufai administration Commissioner for Finance, was charged with ten counts relating to embezzlement, money laundering, and the theft of Kaduna State Government public funds.

He was taken into custody by the police on January 2, 2025, and was later placed under remand in the state capital’s Kaduna Correctional Centre.

However, the defendant entered a not guilty plea to the allegations given to him when the case was brought before Justice Isa Aliyu on Tuesday.

According to some of the accusations, Saidu sold $45 million in hard currency that belonged to the Kaduna State Government, which is equivalent to N18,450,000,000, for a much lower price of N410 per dollar than the parallel market cost of N498 per dollar. The prosecution asserted that this was done with criminal intent, costing the government N3.9 billion.

Read Also: CNG Advocates Tax Bill Adjustments to Prioritize Citizens’ Welfare

According to the prosecution, the defendant committed the alleged offense in 2022 while working as the El-Rufai administration’s Commissioner for Finance.

The prosecution claims that Saidu violated Section 18 of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022 by laundering the more than three billion naira disparity.

The prosecution’s attorney, Professor Nasiru Aliyu, resisted the application when the defendant’s attorney, M. I. Abubakar, told the court about a pending bail application and begged the court to give his client bail after 21 days in detention.

He maintained that the prosecution had seven days under the law to respond to the bail request.

In his ruling, Justice Aliyu ordered that the prosecution be given the legally allotted time to submit its defense to the bail request.

As a result, the hearing on the bail application was postponed until January 23, 2025.