Pension Thief Director Slumps In Court

A convicted pension fraudster, John Yahaya Yusufu, who is standing trial for alleged false declaration of assets Monday, slumped in the dock while his trial was in progress before a Federal High Court in Abuja.

As soon as the court resumed sitting, Yusufu’s lawyer, Mr. Theodore Maiyaki, moved an application seeking bail for his client.

The lawyer told the court that the offence for which his client was standing trial was a bailable one and that since the law empowers the court to exercise discretion in granting bail to the accused person, the discretion should be exercised in his client’s favour.

However, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) counsel, Mr. Rotimi Jacob (SAN), opposed the application.

He invited the court to take into cognisance the recent conviction of the accused on the charge of criminal breach of trust, which clearly showed that Yusufu’s antecedents forbid the court from exercising its discretion in his favour.

Yusufu, an Assistant Director with the Police Pension Board, was convicted last month by an Abuja High Court for stealing N27 billion in pension funds and was sentenced to two years imprisonment or was given the option of paying N750,000 as fine. The punishment was widely condemned.

Jacob pointed out that Yusufu did not deny his previous conviction for criminal breach of trust in the affidavit he filed in support of his application for bail and urged the court to consider the gravity of his present offence, a felony – an offence punishable by five years’ imprisonment – as a proof of evidence filed alongside the charge, and to deny him bail.

He further told the court that it was in the interest and safety of the accused person to be kept in custody to prevent the possibility of being mobbed by some aggrieved members of the public who were irked by the seeming mildness of the sentence imposed on him following his earlier conviction for criminal breach of trust.

The court, after listening to both lawyers, decided that Yusufu’s trial should go on while a date should be fixed for the ruling on his bail application.

Yusufu’s lawyer protested the ruling unsuccessfully and suggested that the matter be adjourned for ruling on the bail application before the substantive trial could commence.

But the court insisted on going ahead with the trial, which had been scheduled for yesterday (Monday).

At that point, the EFCC lawyer called his first witness, a civil servant working with the anti-graft agency under the Asset Forfeiture and Tax Investigation Unit, Mr. Mustapha Sani.

No sooner had the witness commenced his testimony than Yusufu, who had been standing in the dock, started shaking violently.

His lawyer pleaded with the court to allow the accused person to sit down, a request that was promptly granted by the court but as the accused made to sit down inside the dock, he slumped forward on the wooden dock.

His lawyer and prison officials who had brought him to court from Kuje Prison rushed to him and assisted him to sit down.

At this juncture, the court indicated that the accused was not fit to continue with the trial and adjourned the trial until April 22.

The court also fixed the ruling on his bail application for March 11.
His lawyer requested that Yusufu be allowed access to his personal physician for urgent medical attention. The court acquiesced and directed the prison authorities to allow his doctor attend to him.

The accused is standing trial for not disclosing his interest in a N250 million fixed deposit with Zenith Bank International Plc, which was fixed in the name of a company known as SY-A Global Services Limited, incorporated by him and solely owned by him and members of his immediate family.

He was also alleged to have a N10 million fixed deposit in an account his company maintained with First Bank of Nigeria Plc and another N29 million fixed through one Mr. Danjuma Mele, who is also scheduled to testify as a witness during the trial.