Babachir Lawal, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, has been granted bail on Wednesday, a day after he was arraigned and remanded in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

A high court of the Federal Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on Wednesday granted bail to the former SGF and three others facing charges of corruption in the sum of N50 million with one surety each.

Lawal was alleged of using his companies to get contracts worth millions of naira in the North-East without executing the contracts.

While he was removed from office in 2017 after being indicted,  the EFCC just arraigned him on Tuesday.

The charges of scam and abuse of office have been laid against Lawal, his company, Rholavision Engineering Limited, and three others, namely: Hamidu David Lawal, Sulaiman Abubakar, and Apeh Monday.

Lawal and the other accused persons pleaded not guilty to the charges and their lawyers applied for them to be granted bail, but the trial judge Jude Okeke ordered that the accused persons should be remanded in the custody of the EFCC until Wednesday when the bail application would be heard.

On Wednesday, the judge said the crime for which the defendant is charged “is bailable”.

As part of the bail conditions, N50 million with one surety each must be provided by Lawal and co.

The court ordered the sureties must be resident within the jurisdiction of the court, FCT.

“The sureties must own landed property  in FCT and must provide evidence  of tax paid in the last three years.”

The judge added that pending the fulfillment of the bail conditions, Lawal and the two others should remain in the custody of the EFCC.

The court further noted that each of the defendants is to deposit his international passport with the court pending the fulfillment of the bail conditions.

The next trial was fixed for March 18.