A Lagos State Magistrate Court, sitting in the Igbosere area of Lagos Island has ordered that a lawmaker representing Edu/Moro/Patigi constituency of Kwara State at the House of Representatives, Aliyu Pategi, be remanded in prison.
Magistrate Afolashade Botoku, made the remand order following an application to that effect, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The EFCC had told the magistrate that Mr Pategi stood surety for a former Minister of State for the Federal Capital Territory, Oloye Jumoke Akinjide, who has a pending criminal charge against her before the Federal High Court in Ibadan.
In the money laundering charge, the EFCC alleged that Akinjide collected 650 million Naira out of the 115 million dollars doled out by a former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezaani Alison-Madueke, to compromise the 2015 general election.
Pategi was said to have, on August 10, 2016, entered a bail bond of 650 million Niara to secure an administrative bail for Akinjide, but the former minister was said to have jumped the bail.
The anti-graft agency, therefore, took Mr Pategi before the magistrate court in Lagos, asking him to give reasons why he should not forfeit the 650 million Naira to the Federal Government.
The counsel for the EFCC, Rotimi Oyedepo, said the motion on notice seeking the forfeiture of Aliyu’s 650 million Naira was filed pursuant to Section 6(6) of the Constitution and Section 132 (1) -(3) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act.
An operative of the EFCC, Danladi Daniel, also said that “all efforts made by officers of the commission to get Oloye Jumoke Akinjide to come and stand her criminal trial proved abortive.”
After hearing the application, the magistrate, Botoku, adjourned the case till June 20, 2017, for the ruling.
The magistrate, who ordered the remand of Mr Pategi in the custody of the EFCC till the next adjourned date also insisted that his bail application had to be formally made before the court.
