Justice Chinyere Nwecheonwu of the Federal Capital Territory High Court in Abuja has directed that a former Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme, Usman Yusuf, be remanded at the Kuje Correctional Centre.
Justice Nwecheonwu gave the order on Monday after Yusuf appeared before her and took his plea.
Yusuf is being charged with abusing his office to confer undue advantages on himself between 2016 and 2017; and allegedly awarded contracts without adhering to the due procurement process.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arraigned Yusuf on five-counts amended charges bordering on alleged fraud, but Yusuf said he was not guilty if all the five charges were read to him.
Thereafter, Yusuf’s counsel, O.I. Habeeb, pleads that his client be kept in the EFCC’s custody pending the hearing of the bail application, but Justice Nwecheonwu, however, declines the plea.
The court ordered 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 arrest and trial had attracted a condemnation from the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar who described Yusuf as a “fierce and unyielding social critic,” saying his detention is likely “politically motivated.”
While agreeing that the charges brought against Yusuf had been lingering since the past administration, Atiku criticised President Bola Tinubu for using the “machinery of the state to silence its critics.”
“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,” Atiku tweeted.
