Okey Muogbo and Lanre Adewole, Abuja - 17.07.2007

This is contrary to reports that he had fled the National Hospital, Abuja, where he was being treated for an undisclosed illness.

The Commissioner for Information in his administration, Mr. Igbonekwu Ogazimorah, confirmed his former boss’s arrest by the anti-corruption agency.

Ogazimorah told the Nigerian Tribune on the telephone that his former boss was taken away by the commission’s operatives yesterday afternoon.

The commission’s operatives were said to have cordoned off the male ward of the National Hospital immediately they got wind of Nnamani’s stay in the ward.

About 16 detectives were put on surveillance to forestall any escape attempt by the former governor.

The commission had accused the former governor of looting the state to the tune of billions of naira during his eight-year tenure.

While still in office, two of his commissioners were arrested and charged to court by the commission over allegations of assisting the ex-governor to steal the state’s money.

In a related development, the immediate past governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Saminu Turaki, fought tears unsuccessfully on Monday, as a Federal High Court in Abuja remanded him and his Abia State counterpart, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, in prison custody pending the determination of their bail bids in a week’s time.

Their Plateau counterpart, Chief Joshua Dariye, was, however, ordered by another court to continue his stay in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) till Thursday when his bail application would be looked into.

The three former governors are being tried by the anti-graft commission on allegations of money laundering running into about N40 billion while in office.

Clutching a copy of the Holy Quran, Turaki, who is a serving senator, gave in to emotions and sobbed in court when it dawned on him that the trial judge, Justice Binta Murtala-Nyako, would not be considering his bail application.

His relatives could not but share in his grief as some of them also wept openly.

All the three former governors were formally charged on Monday with all of them pleading not guilty to all the counts.

While Kalu stood for about two hours in the dock to enter his plea for the 107 counts against him, Turaki had to contend with 32 counts, while Dariye’s was 14 counts.

Turaki had to salute the stamina of Kalu for standing all through the plea-taking exercise by saying “you are strong o” when Kalu was asked to step down from the dock.

The prosecuting commission also revealed that the accounts of the indicted former governors would be frozen soon.

Its counsel, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs, told journalists after the court session that the commission was already working towards achieving that, which he said would be sealed by the court.

In the different charges against the former governors, Turaki is alleged to have laundered about N36 billion, Kalu, N3.1 billion and Dariye, N750 million.

Kalu and Turaki, who appeared before Justice Nyako, had their bail applications turned down because they were filed moments before their trial commenced, with the trial judge conceding to the request of the prosecuting counsel that time should be given to respond to the issues raised in the applications.

Sensing that their freedom would not be early, they separately requested to remain in the EFCC custody, and despite the prosecution not objecting, the judge ordered that they should be kept in prison custody.

Dariye, who appeared before Justice Babs Kuewumi of the same court, also had his bail bid stalled, due to time factor in the filing, but the judge still okayed his continued stay with the commission.

While Dariye was asked to come back on Thursday, Kalu’s trial was adjourned to July 25 and Turaki, July 23.

Speaking through his counsel, Mike Ozekhome, Kalu pointed out that great men like Mandela had gone through his type of ordeal, saying that he saw no big deal in the judge’s order.

The anti-graft commission, in its case against Turaki, claimed that he laundered N33.6 billion in one year, with N17 billion out of the said amount in one day. He was also accused of stealing $20 million within the same period.

The commission claimed that the former governor commenced the alleged fraud on May 3, 2006.