IBADAN—THE countenances of staff of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN and other commercial banks who are standing trial over alleged fraud running into billions of Naira fell yesterday as a Federal High Court in Ibadan refused their bail applications, describing their offence as mind-boggling and a capital offence against the nation’s economy.
The suspects boarding a bus back to prison in Ibadan..
According to the ruling, the offence which the court further described as a new dimension in economic crimes, has serious implications on the nation’s economy.
The accused persons last week, through their counsel, applied for bail saying they would neither jump bail nor influence the wheel of justice if granted bail. The court then adjourned till yesterday for ruling on the bail applications.
The CBN report which the anti-corruption agency, EFCC, acted upon states that “a systematic scheme, which has been on for several years, was being run in which mutilated higher denomination notes, originally meant for destruction, were swapped with lower denomination currencies. The practice, known as inter-leafing, basically labels a box with a higher value than its true content.”
While dismissing the bail applications filed by the accused at the sitting of the court yesterday, Justice Nathaniel Ayo-Emmanuel said with the weight of the offences, they had failed to convince the court that they would not jump bail ordering all the suspects to be remanded in Agodi prisons pending their trial.
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