More than 24 hours after an Abuja Chief Magistrate granted them bail, two former Ministers of Aviation, Prof. Babalola Borisade and Chief Femi Fani-Kayode are still in custody. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) would not allow them to go home following their failure to meet the bail conditions. They were each admitted to bail Monday in the sum of N50 million each with one surety each who must be a director with the Federal Civil Service and who must have landed property in either Wuse, Asokoro or Maitama.

The court said the certificate of occupancy of the said property which must be certified by the Abuja Geogrphical Information Service must be deposited with the court registry.

The court also ordered them to surrender their international passports with the EFCC. An Austrian Contactor linked with the N19.5 billion Aviation Intervention Fund scam, Mr. George Eider, who was equally granted bail Monday evening by the magistrates court sitting in Life Camp Abuja, is still in the custody of the EFCC.

The ordeal of the trio is reportedly connected with the inability of their lawyers to get the Chief Magistrate, Lamido Muhammed Kabir, sign the bail bond for immediate release of their clients.

The Magistrate was said to be unavailable as at the time the lawyers allegedly came with bail requirements.

For their inability to have their necessary bail documents vetted and signed by the magistrate, the EFCC would not allow the accused persons home.

All the accused persons were arraigned, last Wednesday, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) before the court on a multiple allegations of committing criminal conspiracy, breach of official trust, breach of trust, forgery and misappropriation of the Federal Government Fund totaling N19.5 billion meant for intervention in aviation industry. The fund was meant for four international airports in the country including Lagos, Abuja, Port-Harcourt and Kano.

The multiple counts preferred against them were contained in the First Information Report (FIR) filed by one Steve Ehi Odiase.

Odiase who signed the FIR dated July 2, 2008 is the Senior Detective Superintendent with the EFCC.

The trial chief magistrate court had, last week Wednesday refused separate oral applications for bail by the accused persons.

That was shortly after they were arraigned before the courtSpeaking on the travails of the ex-minister, counsel to Chief FaniKayode, Mr. Mike Ozekhome said it was unconstitutional for the ministers to bekept in the custody of the EFCC after they had been granted bail even with their preparedness to fulfill their bail conditions.

Narrating his ordeal, Ozekhome said he had arrived the court premises as early as 9.00am with the sureties and other documents for the release of his clientonly to discover that the Chief Magistrate was unavoidably absent in the courtpremises till the closing hour.

He said, "I will not be involved in making unnecessary speculations, but the issue is that when we came to the court, we discovered that the Magistrate was unavoidably absent.

"Our belief is that he could not come to the court due to some exigencies or an emergency on matters of law. But the fact is we were ready to fulfill all conditions attached to the bail even with the sureties to sign all necessary papers. But our client is being detained due to no fault of his".

He, however, expressed hope that his client and Prof Borisade would regain their freedom today with expectation that the Chief Magistrate would turn up to sign the bail papers.

Ozekhome had earlier averred that the trial of both Professor Aborisade and Fani Kayode was utterly political alluding to the manner by which they were arrested and detained, suggesting that some forces had been the mastermind of the ordeals by the former ministers.