A former governor of Jigawa state, Saminu Turaki, has finally stood trial for corruption for the first time in years of his repeated absence from court.
PREMIUM TIMES confirmed that Mr. Turaki appeared in the Dutse Division of the Federal Superior Court in Jigawa State on December 7 to face a 32-count corruption charge pending against him and his co-defendants for more than 14 years.
The December 7 trial took place before a judge recently assigned to the case, Hassan Dikko. The reassignment of the case to Mr. Dikko followed the recent retirement of the former judge, S. Yahuza, from the bench of the Federal Superior Court.
Yahuza’s retirement required that Turaki’s trial, which began in 2007, begin anew with a new guilty plea from the defendants.
At his new arraignment on December 7, the former governor pleaded not guilty to the 32 charges.
The judge then adjourned the matter until February 24 and 25, 2022 for trial.
Trial stalled for 14 years
With the recent arraignment of Mr. Turaki and his co-defendants, signaling a fresh start to the case, it means that the trial has made virtually no progress since it was filed 14 years ago.
Mr. Turaki, who served two terms as governor of Jigawa from 1999 to 2007, was prosecuted for the first time by the EFCC before Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja on July 13, 2007, on one count of 32 counts of misappropriation of Naira 36 billion while in office.
After his arraignment, he was granted bail of 100 million naira.
In 2011, the case was transferred to the Federal High Court, Dutse, after Mr. Turaki successfully challenged the territorial jurisdiction of the Federal High Court in Abuja to hear the case.
He was subsequently tried again on the same 32-count count in the Dutse Division of the Federal Superior Court.
Due to Mr. Turaki’s repeated absence from court, the case stalled for years, until his luck ran out when the EFCC arrested him on July 4, 2017, at an event in Abuja.
While the EFCC was trying to arrange a trial date in the Dutse court, the annual leave of the Federal High Court judges began. So the EFCC faced the risk of keeping the former governor in custody beyond the constitutionally allowed period.
Since his arrest in Abuja, Mr. Turaki quickly filed a rights application with the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), in Abuja, seeking a court order to release him from custody of the anti-bribery agency.
The EFCC objected to the lawsuit arguing that Mr. Turaki would again default on bail, based on his record of bail granted by the Federal Superior Court in Dutse in 2011, and evading the arrest warrant subsequently issued by him. court.
Despite EFCC’s objection, Yusuf Halilu of the FCT High Court granted bail to the ex-governor on the condition that he submit his travel documents to the court registry, submit “two reasonable guarantees” residing in Abuja and routinely sign a log to open in the EFCC office every two weeks.
Mr. Turaki’s recent visit to Calabar
Reluctant to release Mr. Turaki as ordered by the court, the EFCC requested and succeeded in having the trial moved from the Dutse Division of the Federal High Court to the Abuja Division, which was the only division to appoint a judge to examine all urgent cases throughout the northern region.
Turaki pleaded not guilty to the 32 charges again and was again granted bail by Judge Nnamdi Dimgba. On July 18, 2017, the judge granted him a bond in the amount of N500 million with two bonds in the amount of N250 million each.
Among other conditions for bail, the judge ordered Mr. Turaki to appear at the EFCC headquarters on the first business day of each month.
The case was then transferred to the Dutse Division after Mr. Turaki fulfilled the conditions of the bond and Mr. Dimgba signed the order for his release from custody.
Since then, the case has not progressed due to Mr. Turaki’s repeated absence from court.
Highlights of evading arrest
In the many years that Mr. Turaki evaded trial, he attended some public, social and political events, but managed to evade arrests by the EFCC.
This was despite the fact that the EFCC was armed with a warrant issued in May 2013 by the Federal High Court in Dutse for the arrest of Mr. Turaki.
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In 2014, Mr. Turaki, who had been elected governor on the platform of the then opposition All Peoples Party (APP), but defected to the ruling Popular Democratic Party (PDP) after his term, was seen as part of the campaign. election of the current governor of Jigawa state, Muhammad Badaru, who at the time was the gubernatorial candidate of the Congress of All Progressives (APC) before the 2015 gubernatorial election.
On May 19, 2016, EFCC officers broke into Mr. Turaki’s home at 16 Dennis Osadebey Street, Asokoro, Abuja, but were unable to get their hands on him.
In the following months, Turaki would be seen as one of the guests at the wedding of Zahra, daughter of President Muhammadu Buhari, in December 2016 in Daura, Katsina state.
They had also seen it at the Bola Tinubu Colloquium, a well-attended public event in Lagos.
In July 2017, Mr. Turaki attended a book presentation on the late Zakariya Maimalari, entitled “The First Regular Combatant”, which was held at the Abuja International Conference Center.
It was in the event that Mr. Turaki was arrested by the EFCC.
The live broadcast of the book launch on television is believed to have alerted the anti-bribery agency to Turaki’s presence at the event attended by some political leaders, leading to his eventual arrest.
He was subsequently granted bail on July 18, 2017, about two weeks after his arrest on July 4.
The trial has not progressed since then until the arraignment on December 7, 2021, which was necessitated by the retirement of the trial judge and the subsequent reassignment of the case to another judge.
Most recently, on December 25, he was in Calabar, Cross River State, along with Jigawa State Governor Mr. Badaru and his Kebbi State counterpart Atiku Bagudu to celebrate Christmas with their Governor Ben Cross River State Ayade.
Charges
In the 32 charges brought by the EFCC, Mr. Turaki and his three co-defendants were charged with collaborating “in concealing the genuine nature” of a total sum of around N37 billion allegedly “derived from an illegal act” .
The offenses were said to be contrary and punishable under section 14 (1) (b) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2004.
The three companies named as Mr. Turaki’s co-defendants in the case marked FHC / ABJ / CR / 86/2007 are INC Natural Resources Ltd., Arkel Construction Nigeria Ltd. and Wildcat Construction Ltd.
Isa Gafai of the Legal and Prosecution Unit of the EFCC, who signed the charges, declared on the various charges that Ahmed Mohammed, who claimed to be guilty of the alleged crimes, was “a fugitive.”
Along with the charges was a list of 16 proposed prosecution witnesses, including a former acting president of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu.
Number 13 on the list, Mr. Magu is believed to have played a crucial role in the investigations of the case.