Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court, Abuja on Monday fixed Nov. 28 to rule in application filed by Mr Sani Teidi for variation of his bail terms.
Teidi, a former Director, Pension Accounts, in the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation is standing trial over the missing N5.7 billion pension funds.
The judge gave the date after counsel to parties had made their submissions in respect of the matter.
Chief Sunday Ameh (SAN), counsel to Teidi had urged the court to reduce the initial bail terms of N500 million and two sureties respectively to N100 million and a surety.
“My Lord, it has become clear that my client cannot perfect his bail as a result of the stringent terms.
“The essence of our application is for the court to review the terms downward; the accused person has remained in prison for about five months even though you graciously granted him bail.
“My Lord, we have been consistent to aver that the accused person is anxious to stand this trial and will therefore not escape justice if the bail terms are relaxed as prayed,” the counsel further pleaded.
The judge, had on June 19, granted Teidi and Udusegbe Eric, the second accused in the case, bail in the sum of N500 million with two sureties in like sum.
Similarly, Mr Adewale Adegoke, counsel to Udesegbe aligned himself with the pleading for the downward review of the bail terms for his client.
According to him, the second accused person had remained in custody for about five months even after he obtained bail from the court.
“It is our sincere prayer that the court should have a re-think to reduce the terms to a tolerable level in the interest of justice.
“We are therefore demanding that the second accused person be allowed to perfect his bail with N10 million and like sum and a surety respectively,’’ he said.
However, the prosecutor, Chief Godwin Obla, did not raise substantial objections on the two applications but urged the court to apply wisdom and law when reducing the bail terms.
“Granting of bail has always been at the discretion of the court, but when doing so, it must be judicially and judiciously applied in line with the peculiarity of the case.
“In this case, the allegations are weighty and the amount in question declared missing is equally huge,’’ he said.
