A former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Maurice Iwu, has regained his freedom after spending a week at Ikoyi Prison
A former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Maurice Iwu, has regained his freedom after spending a week at Ikoyi Prison in Lagos by meeting his bail condition of N1 billion and two sureties. Iwu, who is facing N1.23bn fraud charges, left the prison on Friday.
The judge said one of the sureties must be a landed property owner in Lagos, while the other must be a civil servant not below Grade Level 16 or a professor in any Nigerian university. He said both sureties must show evidence of three years’ tax clearance and were also required to furnish the court with their statements of accounts. Iwu was ordered to submit his passport into the court’s custody, with an order that he could not travel except with the permission of the court.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had on August 8 arraigned Maurice Iwu on four counts before Justice Chuka Obiozor at the Federal High Court in Lagos in which he was accused of laundering N1.23bn in the build-up to the 2015 general elections. The anti-graft agency alleged that between December 2014 and March 27, 2015, Iwu “aided the concealment of N1.23bn in the account of Bioresources Institute of Nigeria Limited with number 1018603119, domiciled in the United Bank for Africa.”
But Iwu pleaded not guilty.
