Ex-governor Sule Lamido and others in court

Our correspondent said the prison remand followed an administrative hitch of some sort.

Justice Anyadike who flew into Kano from Abuja could not hear the bail application citing the annual vacation of judges which commences next week Monday. The judge however directed that the former governor be kept in EFCC custody until the next adjourned date.

However, lead counsel to EFCC, Chile Okoroma argued that since the EFCC had not enough facilities to keep the accused persons in their custody, the only way out was to remand them in a Kano prison.

Counsel to the accused, Ofiong Ofiong (SAN), told the court that his clients were forcefully being sent to prison, even without being tried, for a technical fault that cannot be blamed on them.

In her ruling, Justice Anyadike who said she already has enough to clear in her court even before the one month vacation of the judiciary, noted that another judge can be allowed to hear the bail application on or before 28 September when the trial will formally commence.

The anti-graft agency arrested Sule Lamido and his two sons over alleged diversion of billions of Naira owned by Jigawa state government to their private companies when Sule Lamido was governor between 2007 and 2015.

Lamido and his two sons arrived the Federal High Court Kano in a coaster bus led by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) operatives.

EFCC operatives later handed over the trio to officials from the Kano Central Prisons who took them away in a bus.
*Updated by additional reports by Maduro Nmeribe