UPDATE: Why Court relaxed bail conditions for Nigerian judge accused of corruption

The failure of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to challenge the applications for bail variation filed by Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia and Godwin Obla was a major reason a Lagos court relaxed their bail conditions, Judge Hakeem Oshodi said on Thursday.
Reading a ruling he prepared after adjourning the morning proceedings till 2 p.m., Mr. Oshodi noted that Section 123 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law, 2011, empowers the court to vary bail conditions imposed on defendants at subsequent hearings.
“The prosecution did not oppose the submissions filed by the defendants,” said the judge.
“We must not forget that where facts and applications remain unchallenged or uncontroverted, the court is bound to accept those facts as the truth.”
The defendants, Mrs. Ofili-Ajumogobia, a serving federal judge, and Godwin Obla, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, are facing a joint 30-count charge of fraud and money laundering brought by the EFCC. godwin-obla
Mr. Obla was a prosecutor for the EFCC.
The duo were jointly charged with a two-count charge of perverting the course of justice by the anti-graft agency.
Mr. Obla was charged with an additional two counts of offering gratification in the sum of N5 million to Mrs. Ofili-Ajumogobia, a public official during her service as a judge.

Mrs. Ofili-Ajumogobia faces a 26-count charge of unlawful enrichment, taking property by a public officer, corruption by a public officer, forgery and giving false information to an official of the EFCC.
They pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
On November 28, Mr. Oshodi granted the defendants bail on own recognisance, but added that they should deposit N20 million each and their passport to the chief registrar of the court pending conclusion of trial.
But on Thursday, the defendants brought an application for variation of the bail, saying that the conditions were “too extreme.”
Mrs. Ofili-Ajumogobia said the EFCC had placed a ‘post no-debit/freezing order’ on all her bank accounts and, in any case, N20 million was “excessive and unaffordable” for her.
She also said the EFCC had collected her travel passport during the course of their investigation of the charges filed against her.
“Bail granted on excessive conditions amounts to a denial of bail,” Mrs. Ofili-Ajumogobia said.
In his application, Mr. Obla noted that the cumulative monetary value of the offences charged against him was N5 million.
“N20 million is burdensome , the second defendant has made frantic efforts to comply with the conditions of the bail but had found it impossible,” he said.
In his ruling, Mr. Oshodi replaced the N20 million condition with a bail bond of the same sum to be perfected within seven days.
“As at the time of writing this ruling, the court has in its custody the international passports of the defendants,” the judge said.
He also ordered the defendants to depose an affidavit of means in support of the bail bond.
The case was adjourned till January 9, 2017, for continuation of trial.

MICKI AND IBRA DISCUSS GOALS IN UKRAINE

Manchester United's goalscorers against Zorya Luhansk, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, talked MUTV through their strikes after the Europa League game in Odessa.

Speaking to Stewart Gardner after the match, the pair were pleased to have contributed to the 2-0 triumph on a difficult playing surface.

Mkhitaryan dribbled through to open his United account in style before Ibrahimovic ran onto a through ball by Paul Pogba and showed why he has been one of the world's deadliest finishers for some time.

MOURINHO PLEASED WITH EUROPA LEAGUE WIN

Jose Mourinho was naturally delighted to see his Manchester United side run out 2-0 winners over Zorya Luhansk on Thursday, praising the Reds for a "dominant" display.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan broke the deadlock just after the break, opening his account for the club with a fine run and finish, before Zlatan Ibrahimovic clinched the victory late on.

Here are the main points from Mourinho's post-match press conference in Odessa, after United sealed progression to the knockout stages of the Europa League...

BOUNCING BACK
"We played well tonight. One thing is to play badly and get bad results, which kills confidence and is more difficult to cope with. When you play well, you have to hope the results will come. The reality is nobody was better than us [in recent weeks], even though we had disappointing results. And in the players' brains, that plays a part."

ALWAYS IN CONTROL
"We had the ball, we had the control, they were defensively good, they had a couple of occasions on the counter-attack and at a free-kick, but we were dominant and if you look at the numbers, we were the team to win. But yes, they were good enough to give us a difficult match."

TOUGH CONDITIONS
"The pitch was better today than yesterday and was good enough to play football and we appreciate the effort that probably Chenomorets and Zorya together did to give us a good pitch to play football. There are no miracles with this cold weather so we appreciate the effort to give us a proper match."

CREDIT TO ZORYA
"Honestly I think the coach is very good because the team is very well organised and the team, in spite of no victories. The group was very difficult with three very good teams, and they competed with them all. I did my homework and analysed their players and quality, and I can understand why they are third in the [Ukrainian] league. Hopefully, next season, they will be in the Europa League and have more experience, and my hope is that next time they can play really at home, even though this is a beautiful stadium."

Manchester United booked a place in the Europa League Round of 32 after a deserved 2-0 victory over bottom-of-the-group Zorya Luhansk in Odessa.

Manchester United booked a place in the Europa League Round of 32 after a deserved 2-0 victory over bottom-of-the-group Zorya Luhansk in Odessa.

The Reds only needed a point to progress but Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s first goal for the club set United on the way to a comfortable win, which was sealed late on by Zlatan Ibrahimovic's well-taken finish. Elsewhere in Group A, Fenerbahce triumphed 1-0 at Feyenoord, meaning Jose Mourinho’s men will go into Monday’s draw as group runners-up.

The Reds knew a draw would be enough to go through and, with an important Premier League meeting with Tottenham just under 72 hours away, Mourinho made six changes to the team that drew at Everton. Sergio Romero replaced David De Gea in goal, while Eric Bailly made his first appearance in the defence since October following a knee injury. Ashley Young, Daley Blind, Juan Mata and Wayne Rooney also came in to the side.

There had been speculation in the media that the match might not go ahead due to the sub-zero conditions which had engulfed Odessa in the days before the game and on matchday itself, but the pitch was deemed safe and proceedings went ahead in freezing conditions.

United had already secured a 1-0 win over the Ukrainians at Old Trafford, back in September. Despite being without a single win in Group A, Zorya proved stubborn opposition that night and it was the hosts who had the first sight of goal on nine minutes when the ball dropped to Ihor Kharatin 25 yards out. His well-struck shot was beaten clear by Romero, who had kept clean sheets against both Zorya and Feyenoord at home, and the Argentinian was relieved to see Ivan Petriak’s follow-up find the side-netting.

Paul Pogba flashed an effort just wide on 18 minutes and headed over soon after. It was pretty much all United thereafter, bar a speculative long-ranger from Zorya’s Olexandr Karavaev, and the Reds’ best chances of the half came as the interval neared.

Bailly connected well with an impressive overhead kick from a corner but it was straight at Igor Levchenko in the Zorya goal, before the keeper tipped a 25-yard Rooney shot over the bar and then saw Marcos Rojo blast over from the resulting corner.

HALF-TIME MATCH STATS
Possession: Zorya 24% United 76%
Shots: Zorya 3 United 10
Shots on target: Zorya 1 United 3
Corners: Zorya 0 United 7

The second half began with United continuing to dominate and a reward duly arrived on 48 minutes when Mkhitaryan opened his Reds account with a fine goal. After the Reds won possession in midfield, the Armenian captain headed forward and waltzed through the Zorya defence, shimmying past a couple of players, before calmly slotting home. The United attacker clearly likes scoring goals at Chornomorets Stadium having netted a hat-trick here for Shakhtar Donetsk in 2012.

Zorya attempted to get themselves back into the game, but Bailly in particular and United’s defence were in solid form and were rarely troubled until a mini spell of pressure 18 minutes or so from the end. After Bailly had suffered a little injury scare, Romero produced another smart save to keep out Mikhail Sivakov’s header from close range.

Substitute Marouane Fellaini, on for captain Wayne Rooney, headed over soon after and, late on, Ibrahimovic sent a potential netbuster just over the bar, before the Swede got his name on the scoresheet after being put clear by Pogba. It was the finish of a supreme goalscorer and the Reds will now look forward to more European football in February.

FULL-TIME STATS:
Possession: Zorya 29% United 71%
Shots: Zorya 6 United 19
Shots on target: Zorya 2 United 7
Corners: Zorya 2 United 9

TEAMS

Zorya Luhansk: Levchenko; Opansenko, Sivakov, Forster, Sukhotskiy; Karavaev, Kharatin (Grechyshkin 57), Chaykovskiy, Petriak; Ljubenovic (c) (Lipartia 72); Bezborodko (Bonaventure 54).

Subs not used: Shevchenko, Kulach, Paulinho, Checher.

United: Romero; Young, Bailly, Rojo, Blind; Herrera, Pogba; Mata (Lingard 65), Rooney (c) (Fellaini 70), Mkhitaryan (Fosu-Mensah 84); Ibrahimovic.

Subs not used: De Gea, Jones, Martial, Rashford.

Booked: Herrera, Bailly.