A Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin has remanded Dr. Saadu Alanamu in prison custody for alleged fraud to the tune of N182m and abuse of bail condition.
Incidentally, Alanamu’s name was forwarded to the Senate by President Muhammadu Buhari last week for confirmation as a commissioner of the National Population Commission.
The PUNCH had reported last year that Alanamu was nominated into the board of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission by the then acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, despite being probed by the same agency.
However, following public outcry, Osinbajo withdrew his nomination after which the ICPC arrested and arraigned him for fraud.
Alanamu, who is a former Chairman of the Governing Council of the Kwara State Polytechnic, was charged alongside the Chief Executive Director of Namylas Nigeria Limited, Salman Sulaiman, for allegedly collecting a bribe from a contractor.
He was initially granted bail by Justice Mahmud Gafar but was remanded in prison on Monday following allegations by the judge that some persons had offered him a bribe to dismiss the case.
The spokesperson for the ICPC, Mrs. Rasheedat Okoduwa, said in a statement that in the course of trial, the defence counsel alleged that Alanamu was “forced, harassed, intimidated and coerced” into making his statement to the ICPC investigators and therefore, the statement should not be admitted in evidence.
Consequently, Justice Gafar ordered a trial-within-trial, which commenced the same day.
This, he said, was for the court to determine whether the statement was made voluntarily or not.
While delivering his ruling on the trial-within-trial, Justice Gafar overruled the objection of the defence and admitted Alanamu’s confessional statement into evidence.
The trial judge also went on to revoke Alanamu’s bail for abuse of bail conditions.
The case was adjourned till Thursday (today) for hearing.
Emeh Achanga,the CEO of the Miss Petite Nigeria Brand is a lawyer turned blogger. She is very passionate about writing, with several publications and awards to her credit .She is currently working on publishing a collection of short stories which are basically a memoir about her exciting true experiences.
