By Soni Daniel

After making a comprehensive statement on what he knew about the failed Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Housing Scheme, Managing Director of Kriston Lally EPC Nigeria Ltd, Mustapha Umar Madawaki, was yesterday granted conditional bail by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. One of the conditions given Madawaki for bail was to produce a surety, who must be a director with the Federal Civil Service.

An EFCC source confirmed to Vanguard that the suspect had met all other conditions for bail except the production of a director to perfect his bail conditions. Vanguard learned that at 5:30pm yesterday, when most civil servants had closed for the day, the bail condition was yet to be met by Madawaki and could, therefore, not be freed by his interrogators.

The man behind the failed project was detained by EFCC on Wednesday when he honoured its invitation, after declaring him wanted for the failed housing scheme, which had reportedly caused misery to many workers nationwide. A top source in EFCC, who confirmed Madawaki’s bail, said, however, that he was not sure if the man would be able to meet the conditions before the end of the day.

Last Thursday, EFCC spokesperson Wilson Uwujaren, confirmed that the commission was in pursuit of Madawaki over his role in a controversial housing provision contract. Madawaki and the immediate past NLC President, Abdulwahed Omar, had in 2013 signed a contract to build thousands of houses for Nigerian workers. Anxious workers, who bought into the scheme, paid various sums said to be in the region of N3 billion into bank accounts provided by the promoters of the project only to be told later that the scheme had some hitches.