Oluomo Olakunle Taiwo, the Speaker of the Ogun State House of Assembly, was granted bail by Justice Osiagor who was presiding over the case.
Taiwo has to pay a sum of N300 million as a bail bond, along with two sureties in like sum.
One of them must not be less than level 16 federal civil service servant.
You will not hear such huge sums even when you place a bet on https://www.telecomasia.net/sports-betting/tips/football/, but Taiwo has been accused of some pretty grave crimes, so the court will not go easy on him.
Oluomo was arrested at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos State last Thursday, around 09:00 a.m.
Although he was released Friday night, he was asked to return on Monday.
When he returned on Monday, to EFCC’s office, he was detained.
To refresh your memory, the Ogun Assembly Speaker, along with three other people had been accused of money laundering, among other things. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission filed an eleven-count charge against the four people, which include forgery, stealing public funds and conspiracy, among other things. The charge sheet was filed on 1st September, by EFCC’s Rotimi Oyedepo, who is the Head of the Legal Monitoring Unit from Lagos. The crimes are said to have been committed between 2019 and 2022.
Samuel Oladayo, Taiwo Adeyemo, and Nimota-Amoke Adeyanju are the co-defendants in the case. They have been accused of helping Oluamo to commit all the crimes, so a warrant was issued for their arrest as well. While Oladayo and Adeyemo have been arrested, Adeyanju is still at large. The two co-defendants in the case have been granted bail too, and their bail bond has been set at N100 million, along with sureties. At least one surety must be more than level 14 civil service.
The accused have all pleaded not guilty to the charges, so they were allowed to apply for bail. To provide bail, Oluomo’s counsel, Mr. Kehinde Ogunwumiju (SAN), emphasised how Oluomo returned to the EFCC office of his own accord after being granted administrative bail, so his good behaviour should be taken into account.
They have been granted a week to meet all the conditions for their bail. In case they fail to meet these requirements, they will be transferred to the Nigerian Correctional facility located in Abeokuta. For this week, the counsel requested the authorities to let them stay in the custody of EFCC, which has been granted.
The EFCC has decided to present a minimum of 10 witnesses to testify against the accused, and corroborate the documents and exhibits that have been used to make the charges. The amount of money that they have been accused of laundering is huge, and if the defendants are proven to be guilty, a huge public uproar would follow. The public funds meant to be used for public welfare have been gravely misused, and this calls for grave action. It remains to be seen how this case further unfolds.
