Akintoye Akindele, a businessman from Lagos, has disputed the charge that he offered police a bribe of N150 million in order to get away with a fraud.
The one-count allegation against Akindele, the managing director of Duport Midstream Company, was heard on Tuesday at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory FCT, Abuja. Akindele entered a not guilty plea.
The defendant was charged by the Inspector General of Police on the grounds that he allegedly offered police N150 million to halt investigations into a complaint filed against him by Summit Oil International Limited through his attorney, Mr. Simon Lough, SAN.
According to the accusation, Akindele paid a team of Federal Investigation Bureau investigators led by Ibrahim Ezekiel Sini a portion of N50 million in payment.
The defendant was accused of conspiring with others in the Summit Oil petition to embezzle $5, 636, 397 and another N73, 543, 764 that belonged to the business.
Akindele, however, disputed the accusation and entered a not guilty plea when it was read to him.
The Police Counsel then requested a postponement so he could gather the witnesses he would need to prove his case against the defendant.
Henry Eni-Otu, the defendant’s attorney, and Pelumi Olajengbesi of Law Corridor made a compelling argument for the defendant’s admission to bail with lenient terms.
The attorney called the court’s attention, among other things, to the fact that their client had spent more than three weeks in police custody as a result of the aforementioned petition.
Eni-Otu begged the court to rely on Section 158 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 to grant bail to the defendant and pledged that Akindele wouldn’t violate any of the bail terms.
Justice Hamza Muazu granted bail to the attorneys’ client in the amount of N500 million and two sureties in the same amount in a brief ruling.
However, the two sureties must hold valid title documents to a piece of land in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Attorneys for the defendant and his friends and allies were close to finishing the details of his bail conditions at the time of this story.
The trial has not yet been scheduled for a date.