Court grants Kaduna former Governor, Yero, others bail

 A Federal High Court sitting in Kaduna, on Wednesday granted a former governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji Ramapan Yero and three others who are standing trial over an alleged case of fraud, bail.

Those standing trial with the former governor are, a former Chairman of the PDP in the state, Abubakar Gaya-Haruna; former Secretary to the State Government, Hamza Ishaq; and a former Minister of Power,  Nuhu Somo Wya.

Justice Muhammad Shuaibu while ruling on the  bail application, granted the request of the accused persons in the sum of N100 million each and two sureties in the like sum.

The sureties, the court ruled, must reside within its jurisdiction and deposit their international passports.

Counsel to the defendants, Ustaz Yunus,SAN, had argued that since the former governor had been on administrative bail for the past six months, "he did not  temper with investigation and there is no indication that he will do so."

But the Prosecuting Counsel, Joshua Saidi, countered the submission of the defence counsel, saying the accused is an influential member of the society who could temper with investigation processes.

Justice Shuaibu after taking the arguments, held that there was no ground to suspect that the accused would interfere with the process of investigation  and therefore granted them bail.

Justice Shuaibu then adjourned the case to September 26, 2018 for hearing.

Yero and three others are standing trial over an alleged case of fraud instituted against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission 

The court had last week ordered that the former governor and three others be remanded in prison custody till 6th of June, 2018.

The court room was filled as thousands of supporters of the former governor as well as those of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), besieged the court premises, chanting solidarity songs.

The supporters  carried placards with inscriptions such as "free Ramalan Yero," injustice is threat to democracy," "from prison back to Sir Kashim Ibrahim House. No more APC/El-Rufai by Zazzau Emirate Youth" and "APC is not government of the people, APC is not democratic government." Etc.

Some of the gathered heaps of broom and burnt them to mock the APC.