Court grants former Surveyor-General N100m bail for N2bn graft

The FCT High Court in Maitama on Monday admitted Ebisintei Awudu, former Surveyor-General of the Federation to bail in the sum of N100 million.
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), arraigned Mr Awudu on Monday before Olusegun Adeniyi, judge, on a 22-count charge of fraud.
Ruling in the application, Justice Olusegun Adeniyi also ordered Mr Awudu to produce a surety in like sum, who must be a director-general or a permanent secretary.
Mr Adeniyi adjourned the matter until September 13 for trial.
The ICPC alleged that Mr Awudu awarded multiple contracts worth over N2 billion to a company in which he was a director and shareholder as well as to relations and associates.
ICPC also alleged that he received over N300 million as gratification from a contractor handling and executing different contracts for the office of the surveyor-general of the federation.
This, ICPC said, was an offence contrary to Section (10) (a) (i) and punishable under Section 10 (a) (ii) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000.
Mr Awudu, however, pleaded not guilty to all counts.
His counsel, F.B. Olorogun, prayed the court to grant bail to his client.
Operatives of the ICPC had, in July 2019, raided Mr Awudu’s office over allegations of contract fraud and theft of public assets.
Consequently, Mr Awudu vacated his seat in September 2019.
We have recently deactivated our website's comment provider in favour of other channels of distribution and commentary. We encourage you to join the conversation on our stories via our Facebook, Twitter and other social media pages.
More from Peoples Gazette

Agriculture
FG tasks ECOWAS on leveraging financing strategies for agroecology
The federal government has urged stakeholders in the agriculture and finance sectors in the West Africa region to leverage financing strategies to enhance agroecology practices

Politics
Katsina youths pledge to deliver over 2 million votes to Atiku
“Katsina State is Atiku’s political base because it is his second home.”

Lagos
Lagos residents decry soaring corn prices
A corn trader, Justina Odion, blamed the high retail price on increased wholesale costs.

NationWide
Afam Okeke wins NBA general secretary election with 8,478 votes
The live results portal showed that a total of 82,167 voters were accredited for the general election held on Saturday.

States
Tinubu is pillar of my infrastructural development: Gov Sani
The governor said that the N1 trillion Light Rail Project will commence in the next two months.

States
Students killed as troops foil abduction attempt in Borno school
He said that the terrorists reportedly gained access to the facility with the assistance of suspected collaborators

Rights
Civil society organisations key to strengthening Nigeria’s democracy: CDHRÂ
He said civil society organisations serve as a bridge between the government and the people.

NationWide
2027: Nigeria won’t drift into one-party state, says LP presidential candidateÂ
Mr Okereke described the one-party state narrative as a mere political construct.





