Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court in Abuja has granted bail to former Kaduna State Governor, Mr Nasir El-Rufai, in the sum of N100 million with one surety in like sum.
Delivering the ruling, Justice Abdulmalik imposed a series of stringent conditions that the defendant must meet before perfecting the bail.
The court held that the proposed surety must reside in either the Maitama or Asokoro districts of Abuja and must deposit the original Certificate of Occupancy (C-of-O) of a landed property at the court registry.
The surety is also required to be a federal civil servant not below Grade Level 17 and must provide evidence of salary payments for at least three months, authenticated by a letter from the manager of a bank within the jurisdiction of the court.
The court further ordered the surety to depose to an affidavit of means, enter into a bail bond, and submit a recent passport photograph to the court registry.
As part of the bail conditions, Mr El-Rufai is to deposit all valid international passports with the court registry.
The court also directed that a verification letter from the surety’s immediate department be submitted, alongside a tax clearance certificate covering the last six months.
Justice Abdulmalik further ordered the defendant to report to the headquarters of the Department of State Services every last Friday of the month by 10 a.m. to sign an attendance register pending the determination of the case.
The judge warned that failure to comply with the conditions would lead to an automatic revocation of the bail.
The court additionally directed the defendant to submit a letter of attestation from the Chairman of the Kaduna Traditional Council.
This comes a month after a Kaduna Court granted bail to the former Minister in a corruption case filed by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) over charges related to alleged corruption and abuse of office during his tenure in the North-Western state from 2015 to 2023.
He was alleged to have abused his office and to have intended to commit fraud and confer undue advantage, which were alleged against the opposition politician.