After months of playing pranks around and calling the bluff of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Speaker, Ogun State House of Assembly, Olakunle Oluomo, was on Tuesday 6September, 2022 docked before a Federal High Court, Lagos alongside three others, over alleged fraud and forgeries amounting to N2.475 billion.
Oluomo and the other defendants, who are is facing an 11-count charge bordering on conspiracy, forgery, stealing and money laundering before Judge Daniel Osiagor, were brought into the court premises in an hummer bus marked ABJ 445 AG by the EFCC.
Other defendants in the matter are an accountant in the Ogun State House of Assembly, Oladayo Samuel, Adeyemo Adedeji Taiwo, and Adeyanju Amoke who remains at large.
EFCC prosecuting counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN) told the court that the defendants committed the alleged offences between 2019 and 2022 in Ogun State by stealing the sum of N2.475 billion from the treasury of the Ogun State House of Assembly.
The defendants pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Counsel to Oluomo, Kehinde Ogunwunmiju (SAN) informed the court that he had filed a bail application which was yet to be put before the court. He urged the court to grant bail to Oluomo in liberal terms because the embattled Speaker voluntarily returned to the EFCC office in Lagos on Monday, after he was granted administrative bail last Friday.
Judge Osiagor admitted Oluomo to bail in the sum of N300 million, with two sureties in like sum, one of whom must not be less than a Level 16 civil servant in the Federal Civil Service.
The second and third defendants were granted bail in the sum of N100 million each with two sureties each in like sum, one of whom must not be less than Level 14 in the civil service.
Judge Osiagor ruled that all the sureties must possess landed property within the court’s jurisdiction, which title documents were to be deposited with the court’s register. The sureties must also possess three-year tax clearance certificates and swear to an affidavit of means.
All defendants are to also deposit their travel documents to the court registry.
The judge ordered that the defendants be remanded in EFCC custody for a maximum of one week and must perfect all their bail conditions by then or they would be transferred to the Nigerian Correctional facility in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
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