An Abuja High Court on Tuesday revoked the bail earlier granted to Mohammed Usman, who is the third defendant in the 14-count money laundering charge the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) preferred against the former Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris.

Usman, who was the Director of the Federation Account, and one Godfrey Olusegun Akindele were accused to have connived with the erstwhile AGF, diverting public funds to the tune of about N109.4 billion, using the account of a company, Gezawa Commodity Market & Exchange Limited, which is the third defendant in the matter.

At the resumed proceedings on Tuesday, trial Judge Ajayi revoked the 3rd defendant’s bail following his failure to arrive at the courtroom on time.

Usman was absent when the trial Judge entered the courtroom around 9:20 am, though his lawyer, Ibrahim Ishaku notified the court that he was held up in a gridlock.

Dissatisfied with the excuse, Ajayi revoked Defendant’s bail and ordered his remand at the Kuje prison. It will be recalled that the court had on July 28, granted the former AGF bail in the sum of N5 billion with two sureties which it stressed must be a Director and a Permanent Secretary.

The court equally granted the 2nd and 3rd defendants bail in the sum of N2 billion each with two sureties that must be Directors.

Ajayi said she was inclined to adopt all the terms and conditions of the administrative bail the EFCC previously gave to the defendants.

As part of the conditions, the defendants were barred from travelling out of Abuja, even as they were ordered to surrender their international passports and undertake not to procure alternate passports during the pendency of the case.

The defendants were equally ordered to depose to an affidavit of assurance to abide by all their bail conditions.

The first prosecution witness, PW-1, Hayatudeen Ahmed in his testimony before the court, narrated how the defendants allegedly pilfered about N84.7 billion out of $2.2 billion that was meant for nine oil-producing states.

The witness, who is an investigative officer, said the ex-AGF was arrested, following the outcome of an investigation into a petition that was lodged against him by the Federal Treasury Concerned Staff Association.