BY tony edike
ENUGU—FORMER governor of Enugu State, Senator Chimaroke Nnamani, and an Enugu-based contractor, Chief Jacob Nwatu, standing trial for alleged contract scam were Wednesday granted unconditional bail by Justice Benedict Agbata of the State High Court.

Nnamani and Nwatu as well as four companies said to be owned by them were arraigned before the court Thursday last week on 15-count charge of allegedly defrauding the state government of over N1billion through some unexecuted road contracts.

The court, thereafter, remanded them in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, pending the hearing of the bail applications filed by their counsels, Rickey Tarfa, SAN and Chuma Oguejiofor.

Senator Chimaroke Nnamani

However, the release of the former governor, after spending 10 days in EFCC custody, yesterday, sparked off wild jubilation by members of Ebeano political family who had converged both in the court room and the premises to hear the decision on his bail application.

The shouts of Ome ogo, Ome ogo (meaning a kind man) and “Chimaroke, Ebeano, Chimaroke Ebeano” rented the air as his supporters sang and danced for about 10 minutes in front of the ultra-modern court complex built by his administration before he drove off to his Agbani residence.

Moving the bail application which was supported by 21-paragraph affidavit on behalf of Nnamani, yesterday, Tarfa informed the court that his client had been granted bail in a similar case pending at the Federal High Court, Lagos presided over by Justice Peter Olayiwola.

He prayed the court for an order allowing Nnamani to continue on the existing bail granted him on November 6, 2007 in the suit number FHC/L/09/C/07 pending the trial and final determination of the matter.

In the alternative, he asked the court to make an order granting Nnamani bail in a liberal term in respect of the information therein pending the trial and determination of the matter.

Tarfa argued that since Nnamani voluntarily submitted himself to the authorities when he was invited by the EFCC and considering the fact that he has never violated any of the bail conditions, the court should not impose new condition other than the ones earlier given by the Federal High Court, Lagos.

In the same vein, Counsel for Nwatu, Oguejifor asked the court to grant his client bail on the ground that a similar case was pending before the court in Lagos for which bail had been granted the accused persons.

Ruling on the two applications, Justice Agbata said that based on the fact that the first accused person (Nnamani) had been granted bail by a court of cognate jurisdiction handling a similar matter in Lagos, he had to adopt the ruling of Justice Olayiwola on the bail application.

He therefore granted the accused persons bail without attaching any condition saying since there has been no evidence that the former governor had violated the bail conditions earlier given to him, “I hereby grant the first prayer of Rickey Tarfa, SAN to allow the first accused to stand on the bail earlier granted him.”

The matter was therefore adjourned to September 26, 27 and 28, this year for definite hearing even though the presiding judge informed the parties of his desire to return the case back to the State Chief Judge for reassignment having concluded the bail applications assigned to his court.

Speaking with reporters after the court session, counsel for Nnamani, Rickey Tarfa, SAN, said that the court’s decision to grant his client bail was right as it was in line with the constitutional right for the dignity of a person and his liberty before trial.

He said that the court was right in granting the former governor bail as it would give him the liberty to answer the charges preferred against him, explaining that the issues pending before the court in Lagos was virtually the same as the ones brought before the Enugu State High Court.