The Abuja Division of the Federal High Court admitted Grace Taiga, former Director of Legal Services, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, to N30 million bail in the multiple fraud cases involving Process and Industrial Development Limited (P&ID).

In his ruling on Wednesday, Justice Obiora Egwuatu, also ordered Ms Taiga, an alleged accomplice in the scandal, to produce two sureties in the like sum, who must be residents in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had, on October 7, re-arraigned Ms Taiga before Mr Egwuatu on seven counts bordering on money laundering offences. 

The judge also ruled that one of the sureties must have property within the FCT and deposit the titled documents with the deputy chief registrar of the court.

Mr Egwuatu, who held that the two sureties must have evidence of tax clearance, ordered that the defendant must deposit her international passport with the deputy chief registrar of the court and must get court permission before travelling outside Nigeria. 

The judge then adjourned the matter until January 17 for commencement of trial.

The defendant had, on October 7, pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

The prosecution counsel, Abba Mohammed, had prayed that the defendant be remanded in prison custody, but the defence counsel, Ola Olanipekun, SAN, informed that a bail application on behalf of his client dated March 18 had already been filed.

Mr Olanipekun had asked the judge to admit her to bail on the grounds of ill-health.

The prosecution counsel said the EFCC filed a counter-affidavit rejecting the bail application and a further counter-affidavit, which he said they relied on.

On September 20, 2019, the EFCC arraigned Ms Taiga in the FCT High Court, Apo, for complicity in the controversial contract Nigeria signed with an Irish firm, Process and Industrial Development Company (P&ID) in 2008.

Ms Taiga is the third person to be charged by the anti-graft agency.

The federal government had arraigned two representatives of the P&ID before the Federal High Court in Abuja on allegations of fraud.

Justice I. E. Ekwo of the Federal High Court sitting in Maitama, Abuja sentenced the company, incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, to wind up in Nigeria and its properties forfeited to the federal government.

Mr Ekwo convicted two directors Mohammed Kuchazi and Adamu Usman.

Mr Kuchazi and Mr Usman were arraigned on an 11-count charge bordering on obtaining by false pretence; dealing in petroleum products without an appropriate licence; money laundering and failure to register P&ID with the Special Control Unit against Money Laundering (SCUML) as required by law, amounting to economic sabotage against the Nigerian state.

They pleaded guilty to the 11 counts of fraudulent involvement in the contract.

The court convicted the suspects and ordered the firm to forfeit all its assets to the Nigerian government.