The Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) is contemplating of suspending a multi-billion naira corruption allegation against, Bala Mohammed, succumbing to the constitutional provision that guarantees absolute immunity from criminal prosecution as he emerged governor-elect.
Mr. Mohammed, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was elected governor of Bauchi state on the 9th March 2019, defeating the Incumbent, Mohammed Abubakar of the All Progressive Congress (APC).
Mohammed left as FCT Minister in 2015 when the APC defeated the PDP, until this year, he has been facing trial bordering on corruption and land racketing.
He was first arrested in late 2016 in what the EFCC personnel suspected might have involved up to 1.6trillion in questionable land allocation in and around Abuja FCT, Nigerian most expensive Real Estate market.
The prosecutors said in court filings, Mr. Mohammed was accused of receiving bribes to a tune of N550 million to illegally allocate public properties to Aso Savings Limited. He was also accused of receiving another N314 million in separate suspicious payments from same Aso Savings. He was the board chairman of the mortgage bank at the time of these questionable transactions.
He was later slammed with an initial N864 million fraud. He was then arraigned on May 10, 2017, before Justice Abubakar Talba of the Gudu High Court Division of the Federal Capital Territory and was granted bail, which he has enjoyed ever since, as his trial proceeded in court.
While his immunity would prevent prosecutors from forwarding charges against him that may arise from further investigations, it would not prevent those investigations from proceeding on their own.