SEATTLE (AP) A Nigerian government official arrested in connection with Washington state’s $650 million unemployment fraud will remain in jail until his trial, a federal judge ruled Friday. U.S.
SEATTLE (AP) A Nigerian government official arrested in connection with Washington’s $650 million unemployment fraud will remain in jail until his trial, a federal judge ruled Friday.
The authorities argued that if Rufai escapes to Nigeria, extradition will be extraordinarily difficult or impossible because of his ties to the Nigerian government.
of Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State, maintains that he is a man of integrity.
Mr Rufai said he would not have been appointed as a senior aide to Mr Abiodun if he was not morally upright.
This claim was contained in his filing at a U.S. court where he is battling to have the suspended bail earlier granted him restored.
The suspect has been in detention since his
arrestat John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on May 14 for pending $350,000 fraud charges instituted against him.
Although Mr Rufai was granted bail by a magistrate judge of the District Court of Eastern New York on May 21, the release order was stayed by a district judge of the District Court of Western Washington at Tacoma on May 25, following the prosecution’s appeal for a review. A district judge is superior to a magistrate judge under the American court system.