Alleged N1.35bn fraud: Appeal Court reserves ruling in Sule Lamido’s case

Tuesday, the judgement in the appeal that was filed by the former governor of Jigawa, Sule Lamido, challenging the decision of the Federal High Court to dismiss his no-case submission was reserved. The appeal was filed against the decision of the Federal High Court.

On trial for alleged fraud totaling N1.35 billion are Lamido, his two sons Aminu and Mustapha, Aminu Wada Abubakar, and their companies, Bamaina Holdings Ltd. and Speeds International Ltd.

They were arraigned before Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court in Abuja on a 37-count amended charge of money laundering to the tune of N1.35 billion fraud. The charge was brought against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

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The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) made the allegations that between 2007 and 2015, Lamido abused his position as governor and laundered several sums of money.

The agency that investigates and prosecutes corruption also stated that the ex-governor had received such sums of money as “kickbacks” from businesses to which the Jigawa State Government had awarded contracts while he was in office.

Before resting its case, the commission presented testimony from sixteen different witnesses during the trial that began in 2015.

The defendants chose to argue that there was no case to be made against them by submitting a “no case” motion to the court. Their reasoning was that the prosecution had not presented enough evidence to the court to warrant their defence.

But Justice Ojukwu rejected the argument that there was no case to answer and sided with the EFCC’s attorney, Chile Okoroma, who argued that Lamido and the other defendants did have a case to answer for their actions.

After that, Ojukwu gave them the order to present their defence during the subsequent adjourned date of the case, which was from November 8 to November 11 in 2022.

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Lamido was dissatisfied with that outcome, so he appealed the decision to a higher court.

During the resumption of the appeal’s hearing on Tuesday, the appellate court stated that it would decide the case at a later date that would be communicated to the parties.

In the meantime, the next scheduled dates for the continuation of hearings in the substantive case before Justice Ojukwu are June 19, June 21, and June 22.