Justice Mohammed Garba Umar of the Federal High Court in Abuja has granted Bauchi State Commissioner for Finance, Yakubu Adamu, bail in the sum of ₦100 million in connection with the alleged $9.7 million terrorism financing charges filed against him by the Federal Government.
The commissioner was granted bail along with four other defendants.
In his ruling on the bail application, Justice Umar directed that the commissioner must provide two sureties, each bound in the same amount.
However, one of the sureties must be a serving Permanent Secretary in the civil service, while the other must be a Director also in the civil service.
He was ordered to deposit his travelling documents with the Registrar of the court and must not travel out of the country without the permission of the court.
Similarly, the Commissioner was ordered to report to the Department of State Service DSS in Bauchi every Monday pending the commencement of his trial.
In the ruling, Justice Umar held that there was no sufficient evidence of terrorism financing in the proof of evidence attached to the charge.
The Judge said that mere money donations to individual or corporate bodies should not be sufficient without cogent and verifiable evidence that the person is a terrorist or the corporate body a terrorist organization.
Justice Umar dismissed the vehement objections by the federal government against the bail request, adding that the objections lacked merit and substance.
He subsequently fixed March 26 for commencement of the trial.
