Many relatives of the bankers standing trial in a Federal High Court in Ibadan, Oyo State over N8-billion scam yesterday besieged the court and rained curses on those behind the accused persons ordeal.

It did not stop there as a few others queried the presence of journalists’ at the court.

Among the relatives was a physically challenged, wheelchair-bound woman who kept on praying for one of the suspects, Deji. She prayed that the good he had done and scores of people to whom he had shown kindness would see him through the case.

Another fair-complexioned woman, weeping profusely, cursed those who spilled the bin on Deji, but prayed that God would consider all the  good gestures of Deji and help him out. “The ancestors of all of us who you have shown kindness in various ways would make you go scot free,” she said.

The relatives of the suspects later turned their anger on journalists, especially photojournalists who ventured to take the suspects’ photographs as they were about to board a rickety prison bus that would take them back to the prisons.

The suspects had been in detention at Agodi Prisons, Ibadan since the case instituted against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission began last week.

The eight suspects in the first batch were led into the courtroom some minutes before 9am with handcuffs on all except the woman among them. But as soon as they sat down, the handcuffs were removed before the commencement of the court proceeding.

After the charges were read to the suspects last week, the case was adjourned till yesterday when applications for bail were supposed to be heard.

At the sitting of the court yesterday, which was presided over by Justice Adeyinka Faaji of the Federal High Court, Ibadan, the proceeding was stalled due to processes that had not been served on some of the counsel.

Two cases were heard in batches regarding the fraud.

The defendants/applicants who applied for bail in the first batch of the case were Kolawole Babalola, Olaniran Muniru Adeola, Toogun Kayode Phillip, all of the Central Bank of Nigeria. Others were Isiaq Akano, Ayodele Adeyemi, Oyebamiji Akeem, Ayodeji Alase and Ajiwe Adegoke.

Due to the fact that some processes of the court were not served on some of the counsel to the defendants/applicants, there was a serious argument on whether the bail applications should be heard or not.

When counsel to all the defendants could not reach a common ground as to whether the case should be heard or not, the presiding judge suggested that the case be stood down till 12noon, subject to the agreement of the counsel.

While the prosecution, Mr Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), agreed to that, other counsel expressed fear that the prosecution could claim that he had no enough time to go through the processes.

Out of seven counsel holding briefs for the accused persons, about three said they were ready for the proceeding when asked individually by the judge. The judge then told all the counsel to put heads together and arrive at a common position on the issue.

After they had agreed, the court then asked one of the senior advocates to speak on behalf of other counsel. Mr Jacob then said they had agreed to come back on Thursday when all processes would have been filed.

Justice Faaji then adjourned to Thursday, 11 June for hearing motion on bail applications and ordered all the accused to be remanded in prison custody.

The second batch of the case involved Oni Ademola Dolapo, Afolabi Esther Olunike, Ademola Ebenezer Adewale, Kolawole Babalola, Olaniran Muniru and Toogun Kayode Phillip. They too were remanded in prison pending hearing of their bail application on Thursday.