BREAKING: Court grants ex minister bail, after EFCC arraigned him

Former Special Duties Minister, Kabiru Tanimu Turaki has been arraigned with three other persons before a Federal High Court in Abuja.

Onyxnews Nigeria gathered that the minister and the three others were arraigned for fraudulent allegations and thereafter granted bail.

Turaki, who is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), who served as the Minister for Special Duties and Inter-Government Affairs in 2013 to 2015, was also Minister of Labour from 2014 to 2015.

He was arraigned on a 16-count charge file by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Others who were arraigned along with him were his former Special Assistant, Sampson Okpetu, and two firms allegedly owned by Okpetu – Samtee Essentials Limited and Pasco Investment Limited. EFCC alleged, in the charge marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/61/2020, that Turaki used the two companies belonging to his aide, to illegally diverted funds.

The defendants pleaded not guilty after the charge was read by official of the court.

Even with their arraignment and their demand for bail, Justice Inyang Ekwo admitted them to bail and adopted the terms and conditions attached to the administrative bail earlier granted them by the EFCC. He ordered the defendants not to travel outside the country without the court’s permission.

Justice Ekwo fixed June 22 this year for the trial to begin.