By Gloria Emmanuel The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, Monday, ordered that the immediate past Interior Minister, Abba Moro, be remanded in prison custody pending hearing of his bail application on March 2, 2016.
Mr Moro and two others, who pleaded not guilty to an 11-count charge bordering on obtaining by false pretence, procurement fraud and money laundering, were docked by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
The director of procurement in the ministry, Mr Felix Alabayemi, was also sent to prison custody while one Mahmood Ahmadu, is now at large).
However, a former Permanent Secretary in the ministry of Interior, Mrs Anastasia Daniel-Nwobia, had an administrative bail granted to her extended on the grounds that she is a nursing mother.
The counsel to the EFCC moved against their bail application, submitting that it was not ripe for hearing, because he was only served on Friday and would need time to reply.
The EFCC accused the defendants and the contracting firm, Drexel Tech Nigeria Ltd of defrauding 676,675 Nigerian applicants of over 670 Million Naira when the ministry of interior organised a recruitment into the Nigeria Immigration Service in 2014.
The recruitment turned out to be a scam of sort and tragedy that claimed the lives of no fewer than 20 job seekers.
