Maimuna Aliyu, former Executive Director of Aso Savings and Loans Plc, has pleaded not guilty to a three-count corruption charge brought against her by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).

Aliyu, whose nomination into the board of ICPC was stepped down after the ICIR reported that she was being investigated for corruption by the same commission, was arraigned before Justice M. A. Nasir of the FCT High Court, Jabi, Abuja, on Thursday.

She was accused of defrauding Aso Savings and Loans Plc, a microfinance bank, of a total of N57 million.

The ICPC alleged that Aliyu “used her position as the Executive Director of Aso Savings and Loans Plc, to confer corrupt advantage upon herself when she received the sum of N57million, being the proceeds of the sale of three plots of land in Jahi District, Abuja, and failed to remit the said amount to Aso Savings”.

Aliyu is also accused of making false statement to ICPC officials, “thereby contravening the provisions of Sections 19 and 25 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act”.

She pleaded not guilty to all the charges, and Joe Gadzama, her counsel, urged the court to grant her bail on self-recognition and also on the basis that she is a first offender.

But the presiding Judge, in her ruling, granted the accused bail in the sum of N10 million and two sureties in like sum who must also be resident within the jurisdiction of the court.

The matter was adjourned to March 12, 2018, for commencement of hearing.

Aliyu is facing another charge, alongside Maryam Sanda, her daughter, who is accused of stabbing her husband, Bilyamin Bello, to death in November 2017. She was joined in the suit on allegations that she tampered with the crime scene before investigators arrived.

Sanda, the alleged murderer, has been remanded in prison and the case adjourned to February 5, 6 and 7 for continuation of hearing.