The High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), sitting at Apo, on Monday, granted bail to the detained former Chairman of the Board of Directors of the defunct Skye Bank Plc, Tunde Ayeni, to the tune of N200 million.
The court, in the ruling that was delivered by Justice Jude Onwuzuruike, also ordered the defendant who was remanded in prison custody on May 4, to produce two sureties in like sum.
It stressed that the two sureties who must be federal civil servant, must submit their national identity cards and their letters of employment, adding that they must own landed property that is worth N500m.
More so, the court held that one of the sureties must write an undertaking of a bank guarantee to the tune of N15billion.
The court held that the defendant should remain in prison custody pending the fulfilment of the bail conditions.
However, it directed officials of the correctional centre to grant the defendant access to his lawyers.
Justice Onwuzuruike dismissed objections the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) raised to challenge the defendant’s request for bail.
He held that the essence of bail was to compel the defendant who enjoys the statutory presumption of innocence, to attend his trial.
Ayeni had upon his arraignment, pleaded not guilty to a 17-count charge the anti-graft agency entered against him.
The charge against the defendant borders on criminal breach of trust, misappropriation, and conversion of investors’ funds to the tune of N15,665,085,429 (Fifteen Billion, Six Hundred and Sixty-Five Million, Eighty-Five Thousand, Four Hundred and Twenty-Nine Naira).
It will be recalled that the defendant had in 2019, pleaded not guilty to a similar charge that was instituted against him and one Timothy Oguntayo.
Shortly after the trial commenced before Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court in Abuja, the defendant, through his team of lawyers led by Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, insisted that transactions the EFCC investigated were fundamentally commercial.
He told the court that there was an understanding between the bank and the defendants for which the approval of the Central Bank of Nigeria was sought and obtained by the management of the defunct Skye bank.
Olanipekun, SAN, maintained that the dispute “arose out of business transactions that went sour,” and emphasized that the issues were amenable to amicable resolution.
The parties subsequently agreed to settle the matter out of court, a move that was approved by the trial judge.
The settlement terms were eventually adopted by Justice Ojukwu as judgment of the court.
