A Federal High Court in Abuja on
Thursday remanded a former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation, Mr Andrew Yakubu, in Kuje Prison pending when the ruling
on his bail application would be delivered on March 21.
Justice Ahmed Mohammed gave the
order of remand shortly after the ex-NNPC boss was arraigned and his bail
application argued on Thursday.
Yakubu, on Thursday, pleaded not
guilty to the six charges preferred against him by the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission on March 10.
The charges bordered on fraud and
false declaration of assets against him.
The charges were all in relation to
the money recovered from his house in Kaduna on February 3.
Operatives of the EFCC had stormed a
building belonging to the former NNPC boss and recovered the sum of $9.7m and
£74,000 stashed in a huge fireproof safe in a slum in Kaduna. The sums of foreign currencies
amounted to about N3bn.
Arguing his client’s bail
application shortly after the arraignment, Mr Ahmed Raji (SAN), urged the court
to grant bail to the former NNPC boss on either self-recognisance.
But EFCC’s lead prosecuting counsel,
Mr Ben Ikani, opposed the bail application.
The prosecutor, however, urged the
judge to impose stringent conditions if the satisfied to grant bail to the
defendant.
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