The Federal High Court has granted bail to Bauchi State Commissioner for Finance, Yakubu Adamu, along with three co-defendants, each set at one hundred million naira, following charges of terrorism financing and money laundering involving approximately $9.7 million.
This decision reverses an earlier denial of bail by another judge, allowing the accused, who include top civil servants Balarabe Ilelah, Aminu Bose, and Kabiru Mohammed, temporary freedom pending the full trial of the ten-count indictment brought by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
The bail ruling was delivered on Wednesday, at the Federal High Court located in Abuja, with the judge citing insufficient evidence linking the alleged financial transactions directly to terrorism activities as a key factor in exercising judicial discretion favorably.
Justice Mohammed Umar emphasized that the defendants had presented adequate materials warranting the court’s judicious and fair consideration of their release, dismissing the federal government’s objections as lacking substantial merit in the context of the presented proof.
Justice Umar held that Adamu and his co-defendants had placed sufficient materials before the court for the court to exercise its discretion in their favour judicially and judiciously.
In the ruling, the judge held that there was no sufficient evidence of terrorism financing in the proof of evidence attached to the charge.
He said that mere money donations to individual or corporate bodies should not be sufficient without cogent and verifiable evidence that the person is a terrorist or the corporate body a terrorist organization.
As part of the stringent bail conditions, each defendant must provide two sureties in the like sum, specifically a serving permanent secretary and a director within the civil service, ensuring accountability during the interim period.
In addition, the accused are required to surrender their international passports to the court’s registry, prohibiting any overseas travel without explicit judicial approval, and must report weekly to the Department of State Services office in Bauchi every Monday until the trial concludes.
The case stems from allegations that the defendants engaged in unlawful cash transactions outside the banking system, purportedly aiding terrorism, in violation of the Money Laundering Prevention and Prohibition Act of 2022, though no direct terrorist links were substantiated in the evidence.
Prior proceedings saw the defendants arraigned on December 31, 2025, before Justice Emeka Nwite, who initially denied bail citing threats to national security, but the matter was reassigned after the vacation period, leading to the current favorable outcome.
The trial has been scheduled to commence on February 26, 2026, providing an opportunity for the prosecution to present further evidence, while the defense argues that referenced individuals like Bello Bodejo lack any terrorism convictions or official proscriptions.
