A Federal High Court in Abuja has slated April 1 for the fresh arraignment of former Jigawa State Governor, Sule Lamido, in a N1.3bn corruption case filed against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
The presiding judge, Justice Peter Odo Lifu, fixed the date on Friday after Lamido and his two sons, Aminu and Mustapha, failed to appear in court for their scheduled arraignment.
The anti corruption agency accused the former governor and his sons of allegedly diverting public funds through fake contract awards while he was in office.
Defence counsel, Joe Agi, SAN, apologised to the court for the absence of the defendants, explaining that they only received information about the hearing on Thursday evening.
He told the court that Lamido and his sons live in Kano and could not travel to Abuja within the short notice given for the proceedings.
Agi assured the court that the three defendants would be present on the next adjourned date to respond to the charges against them.
Counsel for the EFCC, Chile Okoroma, SAN, said he was surprised that the defendants were not in court despite being served with the notice of the trial.
Okoroma also informed the court that the commission had written to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho, requesting that the former trial judge, Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu, who has been transferred to Calabar, be returned to Abuja to continue handling the case.
Justice Lifu, however, said the request was an administrative matter to be decided by the Chief Judge and adjourned the case until April 1 for the defendants’ arraignment.
Lamido, his sons and their firms, Bamaina Holdings Limited and Speeds International Limited, were initially arraigned by the EFCC in 2015 on 27 counts bordering on money laundering involving about N1.3bn allegedly taken from the Jigawa State treasury between 2007 and 2015.
Although the Court of Appeal had earlier dismissed the case on the ground that the Abuja court lacked jurisdiction, the Supreme Court in January 2026 reversed the ruling and ordered that the trial should proceed at the Federal High Court.
