By Abdulwahab Abdulah

Justice Habeeb Abiru of the Ikeja High Court has granted bail to the Nollywood producer, Mr. Ifeanyi Onyeabor, who was remanded in Kirikiri Maximum Prisons early this month over alleged N8.8 million fraud.

The 40-year-old producer was alleged to have collected a total sum of N8.8 million from Steve-James Nigeria Limited in December 2008, for the purpose of producing two movies entitled; “Young Amazon” and “Tribes.”

In the charge sheet, the EFCC alleged that Onyeabor, with intent to defraud, stole and fraudulently converted N1, 850,000 property of Steve-James Nigeria Limited entrusted to him for the production of the movies.

In his ruling on the bail application, Justice Abiru granted Onyeabor a reprieve of paying the sum of N7.5 million with two sureties in like sum.

The sureties, according to the court must be his relatives, who possess landed properties in Lagos state.

Apart from this, the court also ordered officials of the EFCC to verify the addresses of the sureties, the defendant’s, and those of his family and his children’s school.

Earlier, Onyeabor’s counsel, Kingsley Audu, told the court why it must sway its discretion in favour of his client. The counsel argued that the issue between his client and the complainant was contractual, noting that his client only moved to Ghana to carry out his business activities.

Opposing the bail, EFCC’s counsel, Mr. A.B.C Nwosu, argued that Onyeabor was at risk of jumping bail, insisting that before now, the defendant had relocated permanently to Ghana with his family.

The EFCC’s counsel further argued that Onyeabor was lured before he was made available to appear before the court for arraignment, adding that he flouted all conditions earlier granted him by the commission on his administrative bail.

The Judge held that the defendant placed satisfactory documents before the court to warrant exercising the court’s discretionary power in his favour.

He also said the documents he placed before him did not show the client had permanently relocated to Ghana but showed that his wife and children were resident in Iyana Iba area of Lagos.

The judge added that the EFCC failed to prove that the Onyeabor flouted any of the conditions of the commission’s administrative bail. Further hearing in the suit was adjourned to October 17, 2011 for trial.