The Federal High Court sitting in Kano has refused an application by a former governor of Kano State, Ibrahim Shekarau, for the release of his international passport to enable him travel to Saudi Arabia for lesser hajj.

A statement by the spokesman for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Wilson Uwujaren, revealed that Justice Zainab Abubakar declined the request on Tuesday.

According to the anti-graft agency, Shekarau approached the court with a motion on notice dated May 28, 2018.

He urged the court to direct its Deputy Chief Registrar to release his international passport to enable him travel to Saudi Arabia from May 30 to June 23, 2018, for lesser hajj.

In response to the motion, counsel for the respondent, Johnson Ojogbane, filed a nine-paragraph counter affidavit to oppose the motion.

When the case came up on June 12 for hearing, counsel to the former governor, Abdul Adamu, moved his application and adopted the written address attached to the application in his argument.

Ojogbane, on the other hand, moved his nine-paragraph counter affidavit, urging the court to refuse the application.

Delivering her ruling on the matter, Justice Abubakar held that it was irrelevant to grant the request after listening to the arguments of both parties.

She said, “After due consideration of the motion of the defendant applicant and the counter affidavit of the respondent, I deem it unnecessary to release the passport of the defendant applicant as it is one of the conditions in the grant of his bail”.

The judged subsequently refused and dismissed the application for lack of merit.

Former governor Shekarau was arraigned by the EFCC alongside two others, Aminu Wali and one Mansur Ahmed, for allegedly conniving to collect the sum of N950,000,000 – part of the $115,000,000 allegedly distributed by the former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Deizani Alison-Madueke, for the purpose of compromising the2015 general election.