A Federal High Court in Kaduna has refused the bail motion of Bashir Saidu, the former Chief of Staff to Nasir El-Rufai, the state’s immediate past Governor.
According to reports, Saidu, a former Commissioner for Finance under the El-Rufai administration, was charged with ten charges of money laundering, embezzlement, and theft of public monies from the Kaduna State Government.
On January 2, 2025, the police apprehended him, and he was later remanded at the Kaduna Correctional Centre in the state capital.
However, when the case came up for hearing before Justice Isa Aliyu on Tuesday, the defendant pled not guilty to the accusations against him.
Part of the allegations alleged that Saidu sold $45 million in hard currency belonging to the Kaduna State Government (equal to N18,450,000,000) at a drastically undervalued rate of N410 per dollar, rather than the parallel market pricing of N498 per dollar. The prosecution argued that this was done with criminal intent, costing the government N3.9 billion.
According to the prosecution, the alleged offense occurred in 2022, when the defendant was Commissioner of Finance in the El-Rufai administration.
According to the prosecution, the over three billion naira difference was laundered by Saidu in contravention of Section 18 of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022.
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While M. I. Abubakar, counsel for the defendant, told the court of a pending bail application and begged the court to grant his client bail after 21 days in jail, the prosecution counsel, Professor Nasiru Aliyu, opposed the application.
He contended that under the law, the prosecution had seven days to respond to the bail application.
In his decision, Justice Aliyu directed that the prosecution be given the time allowed by law to prepare a reply to the bail application.
The case was accordingly deferred until January 23, 2025, for the hearing of the bail application.
