Justice Daniel Longji of the State High Court sitting in Jos, Plateau State, on Wednesday adjourned a N70 million fraud trial involving Engineer Umar Saidu Bamali, Director, Nigeria Institute of Mining and Geosciences (NIMG) and his Procurement Officer, Adeniyi Adeosun, to November 12, 2018.

The adjournment followed the decision of the second defendant, Adeosun, to plead guilty to the charge.

The defendants allegedly diverted over N70 million, money meant for allowances of staff of NIMG and contracts of printing of security and non-security documents.

Specifically, Bamali, in 2015 allegedly misappropriated the sum of N32 million belonging to the Institute, a sum he claimed was used as allowances for staff, while nobody was promoted that year.

He was also said to have converted to personal use, over N17 million belonging to NIMG, a sum realised by the Institute from the training conducted for Kano Youths, through the State Government.

On his part, Adeosun was said to have received over N8 million as kickbacks to compromise his official duties.

Arraigned on Monday, May 28, 2018, Bamali and Adeosun pleaded not guilty to the six-count charge of conspiracy, misappropriation of funds and criminal breach of trust preferred against them by the EFCC.

At the resumed sitting today, July 25, 2018, Adeosun’s counsel, T.J.J. Danjuma, informed the court of his client’s intention to opt for plea bargain.

“My lord, we have decided to explore the option of plea bargain,” he said.

Consequently, the court adjourned for report on the plea bargain.

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