The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Tuesday, June 9, 2015 opposed the request for bail by some former banking staff currently on trial in Ibadan, Oyo State over an alleged fraud amounting to N8 billion.
The EFCC urged the Federal High Court in Ibadan to reject their bail applications, noting that the accused persons, who were staff of the Central Bank of Nigeria and some commercial banks might jump bail due to the weighty allegations against them.
The anti-corruption agency, represented in court by Mr. Rotimi Jacobs and other lawyers, argued that if the accused persons were granted bail, there was the chance that they could obstruct the course of justice.
He argued that some of them were allegedly intimidating the witnesses that could testify against them.
Mr. Jacobs also made reference to disappearance of some of the accused who are now at large,saying there was a tendency that if granted bail the accused too could run away.
The EFCC told the court that when the 31-count charge was initially read to the accused, some of them, such as Mr. Idowu Oguntade and others had run away and that since then the fleeing accused persons were yet to appear in court.
Rather than granting the accused bail, the EFCC counsel requested that the court grant the cases accelerated hearing.
The lawyers representing the accused persons however argued that since the offence was a bailable one, the court should not deny their clients their prayers, adding that their clients had previously proved that they would not jump bail if granted.
The accused persons, who were arraigned in the first batch are, Patience Okoro Eye, Afolabi Olufemi Johnson, Ilori Adekunle Sunday, Kolawole Babalola, Olaniran Muniru Adeola and Fatai Adedokun Yusuf. They all face five-count charges.
Those in the second batch are Kolawole Babalola, Olaniran Muniru Adeola, Toogun Kayode Philips, Salami Ibraheem and Oddia Emmanuel. These are facing eleven-count charges.
The third batch includes; Kolawole Babalola, Olaniran Muniru Adeola, Toogun Kayode Philips and Tope Akintade.
These last 4 persons face 15-count charges.
The accused are alleged to have made false entries of cash deposited by EcoBank as well as making false entries of N490 million at CBN against N79.7 million of N1000 mutilated notes between 2010 and 2015.
