*** DPO, court bailiffs, land offi cials arraigned
A Federal High Court judge sitting in Abuja, Justice Adeniyi Ademola, yesterday, in the open court, disclosed that a pension thief and former Director (Pension Accounts) in the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation, Dr. Teidi Shuaibu, recently presented forged documents before him to fraudulently perfect his bail condition.
Shuaibu, already convicted by an Abuja High Court over stealing of pension fund kept in his care, is standing fresh trial alongside Udusegbe Omoefe Eric, a former manager with the defunct Oceanic Bank, before Justice Ademola on a 22-count charge bordering on obtaining money under false pretence, conspiracy to commit fraud and concealing the illicit origin of stolen pension funds.
They were though admitted to bail on July 12, this year over the fresh charge with a caveat that they must produce two sureties with landed property in Abuja with a bail bond worth N500m each, three months after the bail was granted, however, the duo are still detained in Kuje prison.
But the trial judge, Justice Ademola yesterday stunned the bar and the Nigerian public when he disclosed that the ex-Pension Director, Shuaibu, not only produced forged documents popularly called "Oluwole" to get the bail, he said the land document tendered was appended by a ghost senior staff of the Federal Ministry of Land.
He said all the forged documents, sureties presented by Shuaibu had been fraudulently okayed by the registry of the Abuja Federal High Court but that the bubble burst when he decided to double-check.
He said the rest was history as he further disclosed that the court official who is a bailiff popularly called Alhaji, the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, and all others persons who played certain roles in the saga had been rounded up and arraigned before a magistrate court in Abuja for forgery.
He said all the accused persons had all appeared in court, at least, two times since their arrest.
He also said that if he were not very careful, he said signing such documents could have landed him in trouble with the National Judicial Council, NJC, later in future.
Justice Ademola, who accused the ex-Pension Director, of sponsoring media reports against him and the judiciary for not releasing him into the free world with the ghost surety and the 'Oluwole' documents, warned the accused to desist from such act, saying he would not watch anybody taint his integrity, being the only asset he has.
The multiple revelations came yesterday as the man at the centre of the controversy; Shuaibu vehemently denied sponsoring any media attack against the trial judge, the judiciary and the Chairman, Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Service Matters, Senator, Aloysius Etok.
He specifically denied the media reports that he offered N1bn bribe to Etok to skew the report of the committee in his favour.
Making the denial through his lawyer, Mr. Sunday Ameh (SAN), in the court, the embattled former director said he did not contract anybody to file any petition against Etok at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and did not know anybody by the name Barrister Okocha who allegedly filed the petition.
"My lord, I spoke to my client about this and he said he did not authorise anybody to speak on his behalf and that he does not know anybody by the name Barrister Okocha.
"My client has been in prison custody and had no access to anybody besides his lawyer and family members who normally talk to him in the presence of prison officials each time they visited," Ameh told the court.
Justice Ademola expressed shock over the development and wondered how his name could be dragged into the controversy negatively.
His words: "There have been reports in the media suggesting that I was deliberately keeping the 1st accused person (Teidi Shuaibu) in prison custody even after perfecting his bail conditions.
"But that is not true. Let me tell you that there have been some funny developments involving his bail.
"For instance, everything regarding the bail documents presented by his sureties was forged.
"All the documents brought were all forged. From the Certificate of Occupancy (C of O); tax valuation report and even the International Passport brought had expired. I was at the point of signing the bail form when on a second thought I said they should cross check the documents. It was in the process of cross-checking that the forgery was discovered.
"In the case of the C of O, we went to the Ministry of Lands and they said nobody was bearing the name of the person that signed the papers. Even the tax clearance certificate was forged. All the documents were from Oluwole.
"A bailiff of this court and another are involved and are now facing trial before a Magistrate Court for forgery.
"I don't want anybody to talk any nonsense to me. My integrity and my name are so important to me and I have no other job apart from being a judge and I'm not ready to loss it because I love my job.
"What is the big deal about this case? I'm not the one keeping him in prison. As soon as his papers are correct, I will sign his bail documents."
Meanwhile, counsel to the 2nd accused (Omoefe), Adewale Adegoke applied for variation of the bail condition of his client on the grounds that it was on the high side.
According to Adegoke, his motion on notice dated September 13 but filed on the 18 of same month is seeking the court's favour to review the terms of the bail condition granted the 2nd accused person.
"We have found it extremely difficult to raise the sum of N500m to enable us perfect the bail conditions and we thereby urge the court to grant our request favourably to something like N10m or less," Adegoke pleaded.
On the part of the prosecution counsel, Godwin Obla (SAN), he did not object to the application for variation of the bail terms, pointing out that the issue of bail terms is subject to the discretion of the court.
Hearing of the application has been fixed for November 18.
