Court orders former Benue state governor, Gabriel Suswam, remanded in prison

Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the Federal High Court Abuja, has ordered immediate past governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam, and two of his former aides, be remanded in Kuje Prisons.

Suswam is currently on trial on a 32 count charge of diversion of a total sum of N9.79bn meant for Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme SURE-P.


While presiding over the matter, Justice Kolawole granted each of the three defendants bail in the sum of N250m among other conditions but however ordered that they be remanded in prison until they fulfill all their bail conditions.

Justice Kolawole in his ruling, ordered that they be remanded in prison pending when the Deputy Chief Registrar, Litigation, of the Federal High Court, Abuja would inform the court that the bail conditions had been met.

Suswam is alleged to have connived with his former aides to divert the sum of N9,791,602,453.8 which was meant for the SURE-P scheme and a small fraction of it for police reform between 2012 and 2015 while he was in office. The former governor and his aides however pleaded not guilty.