The magistrate adjourned the case to 1 February for a hearing and ordered that the defendants be remanded in a correctional facility.
A Chief Magistrate Court in Gyadi-Gyadi Division, in Kano, on Wednesday, ordered the remand of three Sharia court judges, and 12 other judicial workers over the alleged theft of N500 million.
The accused persons are standing trial before the magistrate, Mustapha Datti, on a four-count charge of criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of public trust, and theft.
The magistrate, however, did not name the accused persons.
The offences are contrary to sections 97, 79, 315, and 289 of the Kano state penal code law and are punishable under the law, the Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission, which is prosecuting the officials said.
The accused judicial officials are staff of the Kano State Shari'a Court of Appeal. They include court registrars, cashiers, other workers, and some external collaborators.
Arraigning the accused before the court on Wednesday, the prosecution counsel, Zaharaddeen Hamisu told the court that the judicial workers forged letterheads of the Kano Sharia Court and signatures of the two signatories to the court's Stanbic IBTC bank and fraudulently withdrew N484,067,327:07.
The prosecution counsel also told the court the accused perpetrated financial fraud by criminally facilitating the withdrawal of N96,250,000.00 from the Kano State Pension Fund Trustee to the Account of the Shari'a court and subsequently siphoned the same amount into different private accounts.
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The suspects created 15 fake civil servants' death benefit files and fraudulently convinced and claimed the cash benefits from the pension board, the prosecutor told the court.
The defence lawyers argued that the application was brought under sections 35 and 36 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended and sections 168 and 172 of Administration of Criminal Justice Law 2019 of Kano.
All the defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges, and their lawyers applied for their bail.
In a counterargument, the prosecution lawyer cautioned the court to consider the huge amount involved in the alleged crime in granting the bail. He urged them to order the defendants to deposit some amount of money and or, valuable property before giving their prayers.
The magistrate adjourned the case to 1st February for a hearing and ordered that all the defendants be remanded in a correctional centre.
