AUGUST 3, 2013
EFCC Boss, IBRAHIM LAMORDE
The former presidential candidate of Hope Democratic Party, Chief Ambrose Owuru, was on Friday remanded in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on the orders of a Federal High Court.
The presiding judge, Justice Aliyu Suleiman, had directed that Owuru, who was dragged to court by the EFCC on five counts for his alleged involvement in a N60m fraud, would remain in the commission’s custody pending the determination of his bail application.
Owuru was alleged to have obtained the N60m from one Mr. Ikechukwu Eze on the pretence of selling four plots of land to him (Eze).
The ex-presidential candidate, however, pleaded not guilty to all the charges brought against him by the EFCC.
Making a reference to Section 312 of the Federal High Court Rules 2004, the counsel to the accused person, Mr. Geoffrey Johnson, immediately made an oral application for Owuru’s bail.
Justice Suleiman adjourned the case till August 13, 2013, to allow the lawyer to file an application for Owuru’s bail.
Meanwhile, frantic efforts made by counsel to the Majority Leader of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Mr. Chidi Lloyd, to bail their client on Friday failed to yield the desired result.
The lawmaker’s counsel had earlier secured an ex-parte order from the court to shorten the date for the matter from August 6, 2012 to August 2, 2013, which was to enable the Majority Leader to take his plea.
Lloyd’s lead counsel, Mr. Beluolisa Nwofor (SAN), had told the court that the police had yet to file a counter-affidavit to oppose the application.
Explaining that the police have been served the notice since July 31, 2013, Nwafor noted that bail could be granted to his client even when he (Lloyd) was still in police custody.
But the presiding judge, Justice Letam Nyordee, ruled that bail could not be granted to a person that had not taken his plea.
Nyordee, however, adjourned the matter till August 6, 2013 for ruling.
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