Mr. Richard James Nolan, one of the signatories to the account of the Process & Industrial Development (P&ID) that obtained $9.6bn Dollars judgment debt against the Federal Government has said “even if he is jailed 100 years it will not change the status of the liability for better or worse”.
Nolan stated this on Friday in Abuja before the trial Court judge Okon Abang through his counsel, Paul Erokoro (SAN), while asking for a variation of terms and conditions of bail granted him last month.
The British national is facing 32 counts criminal charge for alleged money laundering and tax evasion, forgery of immigration documents, running of a trafficking syndicate and involvement in corrupting Nigerian officials.
Defendant’s counsel told the court that the prosecution lawyer “is making a big mistake” by insisting he remains in custody because he “is relatively a small fly in the P&ID organisation.”
Erokoro (SAN) said that the prosecution by vehemently opposing the application for variation of the bail conditions has indirectly admitted that the defendant would meet his bail condition if it is varied.
He said the prosecution has agreed that the defendant has made efforts to meet the bail application without success and has no legal valid reasons to oppose the application.
Erokoro (SAN) further told the court that serving senators who ought to be sureties for the defendant are prohibited by law from standing as surety because they are public officers.
He also urged the court to discountenance the argument by the prosecution that P&ID has been convicted therefore a variation of Nolan bail conditions would make it easy for to escape from the country. He said the argument should be discountenanced because there was no judgment tendered in court.
Also to be discountenanced, the counsel submitted is the allegation that Nolan forged the immigration service documents with which he entered the country.
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Prosecution lawyer, Ekele had told the court that the defendant is flight risk and would jump the bail if granted the variation in his bail conditions.
He said that the prosecution in a deposition has made it clear that the foreigner forged his residence permit and would leave the country to further pursue the $9.6bn judgment debt.
Mr. Richard James Nolan was admitted to bail in the sum of N500 million and a surety in like the sum. The court said the surety must be a serving senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria who will bring him to court every trial date.
According to the Court, the said serving Senator must be someone that does not have a criminal case that is pending in any court in the country, and must have a landed property that is fully developed in the Maitama District of Abuja.
Justice Abang stressed that an officer of the Court will verify the statutory Certificate of Occupancy of the property as issued by the Abuja Geographical Information System (AGES).
Besides, he held that the proposed surety must submit a three years’ tax clearance certificate and sign an undertaking to always be present in court with the defendant throughout the duration of the trial.
The surety is to depose an affidavit of means with two passport photographs and undertake to pay the total bail sum, should the defendant escape from the country before the conclusion of his trial.
The court will rule on the application for variation today.
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