Court grants Ali Ndume bail for ‘good behaviour’

A federal high court in Abuja has granted bail to Ali Ndume, senator representing Borno south.

On Monday, the court remanded Ndume in prison after Abdulrasheed Maina, former chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), for whom he stood as surety jumped bail.

Marcel Oru, counsel to Ndume, had filed an application at the high court and the court of appeal for the bail of his client.

The court granted his application on Friday.

At the sitting, Okon Abang, the judge, said though other grounds of Ndume’s bail application failed, the senator has a record of “good behaviour”.

Abang asked the Borno lawmaker to produce a surety who must be a resident of the federal capital territory (FCT) and has property in the territory.

The judge said the surety must also depose an affidavit of their readiness to face the consequences if the senator absconds.

While asking the lawmaker to drop his passport with the registrar of the court, Abang directed him to transmit his appeal to the court of appeal within 10 days.

Maina is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for alleged money laundering to the tune of N2 billion.