A Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) known as the Voice of Truth Nigeria (VTN) has accused the Kaduna State Governor, Senator Uba Sani, of keeping political prisoners despite valid and subsisting orders of a court of competent jurisdiction granting them bail.
In a statement issued on Thursday in Abuja by VTN’s Programmes Coordinator, Dare Quadri, the group stated that the political prisoners are Jimi Adebisi Lawal, the former Senior Advisor and Counsellor to ex-Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai; Umar Waziri, the former Accountant-General of Kaduna State; Bashir Saidu, a former Kaduna State Commissioner of Finance and Yusuf Inuwa, also a former Commissioner for Finance in the state.
The statement reads in part “It is worrisome that a man who parades himself as an activist and a member of the civil society would abuse his office and resort to using his position to compromise the judiciary and victimize political opponents who were charged on trumped on charges even when the court has granted them bail and they have since met the bail conditions. It is commonplace that an accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty. But, in Governor Uba Sani’s Kaduna State, the reverse seems to be the case.
“It is a sad commentary on our judiciary that the application for the variation of the bail terms has been stalled over one flimsy excuse or the other.
“According to credible information available to us, while Saidu was accused of laundering N155 million; Lawal, Waziri, Inuwa and a company known as Solar Life Nigeria Limited were charged for allegedly laundering N64.8 million by the Independent and Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) on the 21st of January, 2025, contrary to the earlier unfounded claim of misappropriating the sum of N423 billion.
“After taking their non-guilty pleas, the Federal High Court heard their bail applications and consequently granted them bail. The court ordered the defendants to provide two sureties with N50 million each, who must have landed property in Kaduna with verified Certificates of Occupancy.
“Shortly after the defendant was granted bail, the agency responsible for the verification of Certificates of Occupancy (Cs of O), Kaduna Geographical Information Service (KADGIS), suddenly suspended verification services for Certificates of Occupancy (Cs of O), just as its Director-General was said to have suddenly travelled out of Kaduna to an unknown destination and without any information as to when he would return.
“All these schemes, we were reliably informed, were at the instance and under the direction of Governor Sani who has vowed to keep the defendants behind bars for as long as he desires. And to make through his boastings the defendants have remained in prison custody since the 21st of January, 2025 even when they have met all the bail conditions because KADGIS, acting on the instruction of Governor Sani, refused to verify the Certificates of Occupancy (Cs of O) despite two letters written by Mrs Anthonia Layi Oyibo, the Deputy Registrar of the Federal High Court, Kaduna, seeking their verification. The first was dated 21st day of January 2025, and the second was dated 3rd February 2025.”
The group, therefore, urged all well-meaning Nigerians, the international community and foremost human rights organisations, such as Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Law Service (HURILAWS), among others, to prevail on Governor Sani to stop the abuse of power and free all the political prisoners “without further delay”.
