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A Federal Capital Territory High Court in Abuja, on Monday ordered the remand of a former Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme, Usman Yusuf, at the Kuje Correctional Centre.
Justice Chinyere Nwecheonwu gave the order after Yusuf was arraigned and took his plea.
Yusuf is accused of abusing his office to confer undue advantages on himself between 2016 and 2017. He is also alleged to have awarded contracts without adhering to the due procurement process.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission arraigned Yusuf on five counts amended charge bordering on alleged fraud.
However, Yusuf pleaded not guilty to all five counts when the charges were read to him.
Yusuf’s counsel, O.I. Habeeb, afterwards, requested that his client be remanded in the EFCC’s custody pending the hearing of the bail application. The trial judge, however, declined the request.
Justice Nwecheonwu ruled that once a defendant is arraigned, custody is transferred from the EFCC to the Nigerian Correctional Service.
She, therefore, ordered Yusuf’s remand in Kuje Correctional Centre pending the hearing of his bail application.
She adjourned the case to February 12, 2025, for a hearing of the bail application.
Yusuf’s continued detention had sparked a condemnation from the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar.
In a tweet via his X handle on Friday, Atiku described Yusuf as a “fierce and unyielding social critic,” saying his detention is likely “politically motivated.”
In his tweet, the former Vice President, while acknowledging that the charges brought against Yusuf had been lingering since the past administration, criticised the President Bola Tinubu-led government for using the “machinery of the state to silence its critics.”
His tweet read, among others, “Two days ago, the nation was jolted by the arrest of Professor Usman Yusuf, a fierce and unyielding social critic. Though the charges against him have been festering since the previous administration, it is impossible to ignore the strong likelihood that his detention is politically motivated.
“The Tinubu government, despite being riddled with individuals who themselves are embroiled in scandals and investigations by both local and international authorities, continues to use the very machinery of the state to silence its critics. It weaponises these pending investigations to suppress all opposition.”
