Court Grants Bail To Ndume

A Federal High Court in Abuja yesterday admitted Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume to bail? in the sum of N25 million with two sureties.

The court had earlier dismissed the objection raised against his bail application by the Federal Government, saying it lacked merit.

Ndume had been arraigned on a four-count charge preferred against him by the State Security Service (SSS), for concealing information of the operation of the dreaded Boko Haram Islamic sect from law enforcement agencies, was moved from the SSS custody to Kuje prison last Friday.

In his ruling on Ndume’s bail application yesterday,? Justice Gabriel Kolawole held that in order to allay the fears of the Federal Government for admitting him to bail at this stage of trial, one of the sureties must be a former or serving member of the National Assembly or at best, a national officer of Ndume’s political party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The second surety, the Judge said, must be a Nigerian resident in the country and must have a landed property worth above N50 million within the country.

Justice Kolawole added that the services of a qualified property or estate valuer should be engaged to value the surety’s property and that the valuation report must form part of the documents to be deposited with the Deputy Chief Registrar (DCR), Litigation of the court. The case as been adjourned till February 2, 2012 .