N1.3bn scam: Lulu, Ogunjobi, others to spend Sallah in prison
By Ikechukwu Nnochiri
Former president of the Nigeria Football Federation, Sani Abdulahi Lulu and his ‘co-conspirators’, Amanze Uchegbulam, Taiwo Ogunjobi and Bolaji Ojo-Oba are to spend the sallah celebration behind bars as they failed to meet bail conditions of a trail court
TRIAL . . . Photo shows from L-R: Sani Lulu, former President, NFF, Amanze Uchegbulam, former Vice President, NFF, Bolaji Ojo-Oba, former Secretary, NFF and Taiwo Ogunjobi, former Head of the Technical Committee, NFF at the Federal High Court, Maitama, Abuja, where they were arraigned by the EFCC for alleged graft during their tenure as executives of the Nigeria Football Federation.
The ex-NFF helmsmen were whisked back to EFCC custody around 7: 35pm yesterday after the court registrar who took some documents that would have made it possible for all the accused persons to celebrate the Sallah in the comfort of their homes, failed to show-up, leading to operatives of the anti-graft agency marshalling them back to detention pending when the trial Judge confirms that all the conditions have been fulfilled.
Justice Okorowo had on Tuesday, ordered that the former president of the NFF, Sani Lulu, former Vice President, Uchegbulam Amanze, former Technical Committee Chairman, Taiwo Ogunjobi, and former General Secretary, Bolaji Ojo-Oba, be remanded in Kuje prison should they fail to perfect any part of the conditions upon which they earlier granted bail.
The quartet, are answering to a 10-count criminal charge preferred against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Justice Okorowo while acceding to their bail request had specifically ordered them to deposit N100m each as bond, as well as produce two sureties each in like sum.
The judge insisted that one of the sureties must not be below grade level 15 in the civil service, adding that the second surety must be a person of substance in the society, who must not only swear an affidavit of means before the court but also provide evidence of 3-years tax clearance issued by the Federal Inland Revenue Service.
Furthermore, Justice Okorowo also directed that both sureties must be resident within the Federal Capital Territory and owners of landed property of which the title deeds must be deposited with the court registrar, adding that the accused persons must surrender their international passports to the court as well as two passport photographs for both themselves and their individual sureties.
The embattled ex-officials were however unable to perfect all the stipulated conditions until around 7pm as Vanguard reliably
