Dr. Tunde Ayeni, former Chairman of the defunct Skye Bank, now Polaris Bank, and Timothy Oguntayo, former Managing Director of the bank, were on Monday arraigned before Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja.
However, the duo were granted bail to the tune of N50 million each in a money laundering suit filed against them by the Federal Government.
Ayeni and Oguntayo were docked on an eight-count charge bordering on money laundering charge amounting to N4.75 billion and $5million.
Both men denied any wrongdoing, a situation that made the prosecuting counsel, Abba Mohammed, to request for a date to commence trial.
Mohammed equally prayed the court to remand the defendants in prison custody pending commencement of trial.
Reacting, counsel to Ayeni and Oguntayo, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN) and Tola Oshodi (SAN) respectively, told the court that there were pending bail applications filed on behalf of their clients, which had already been served on the prosecution.
The defence counsel informed the court that the defendants had been on administrative bail by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and that they had on their own been keeping their dates with the anti-graft agency for over a year now.
Efforts made by the prosecution counsel to kick against the bail application were futile as the court demanded to know if the offence was bailable of which the prosecution answered in the affirmative.
Having been convinced that the matter was bailable, the court asked parties to meet and agree on bail condition.
After standing down the matter for 10 minutes, the parties returned with the prosecution asking the court to decide on the matter judicially and judiciously.
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Justice Dimgba consquently granted the duo bail in the sum of N50 million each and two sureties each in like sum.
He gave the defendants 36 hours to perfect the bail condition and ordered that any of the sureties should be a civil servant, who must be an Assistant Director and if a private citizen, must own landed property in Abuja or Lagos.
They sureties are to present to the court, evidence of ownership of such property, even as the court ordered that the defendants must deposit their international passports with the court registry and should not travel out of the country without the court’s consent.
He adjourned the case till February 13 and 14 for commencement of trial.
