Senator Ali Ndume has been restricted by Kuje prison officials after he submitted to the prison on Tuesday.
Ndume was on Monday, ordered by a Federal High Court in Abuja to be remanded in Kuje prison following the disappearance of defunct pension chairman, Abdulrasheed Maina whom he stood as surety for bail for alleged
money laundering offences .
Justice Okon Abang had ordered the remand of Ndume in the correctional facility pending the payment of N500million bail bond to the federal government which will be made through the sale of his Asokoro property.
Some Senators who were said to have visited the prison on Tuesday, to see their colleague were asked to obtain permission from the controller to allow access to Ndume
Current matters however gathered the Senators were unable to see Ndume as only lawyers and wives of the Senator are allowed to see the embattled Senator as a result of temporary suspension of visit to the facility because of covid-19.
Ndume had said he was persuaded by very influential Nigerians to stand as surety for Maina.
In 2013,Maina as a Deputy Director was made Chairman of the Presidential Task Team on Pension Reforms when he was accused of theft to the tune of N2BILLION.in the office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation.
Maina was dismissed shortly afterwards by the Federal Civil Service Commission following recommendation by the Office of the Head of Service.
Maina was alleged to have defrauded civil servants of their pensions and had diverted N2BILLION pension funds into his personal accounts.
The former pension chairman as alleged was secretly recalled after his dismissal by the Buhari government and promoted to the level of Director in Charge of Human Resources in the Ministry of Interior.
However, the allegation became real when the then Interior Minister,Abdulrahman Dambazau,on Sunday, October 22, 2017, confirmed that Maina was indeed back in the federal civil service.
Dambazau after admitting Maina’s recall, retracted his statement and rather blamed the Office of the Head of Service for Maina’s reinstatement.
Opinions randomly sampled on the Ndume’s remand suggest unfair punishment for his inability to produce the suspect.
A legal practitioner,Freda who spoke with current matters said the practice had been that where a person standing surety is unable to guarantee the whereabout of the suspect, the person forfeits the bail bond and not the other way round where the surety takes the place of the suspect adding. perhaps there might be cogent reasons for the substitution.
While Ndume groans in prison custody, some Nigerians are of the view that Ndume’s treatment should be meted to Senator Eyinaya Abaribe who stood surety for Nnamdi Kanu and could not produce him in court.
