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A Federal High court sitting in Lagos set a N500 million bail on the former head of Intercontinental Bank who faces charges of mismanaging the lender in the run-up to last year's N620 billion sector-wide bailout.

The figure is five times the amount set for the heads of four other lenders rescued alongside Intercontinental.

Erastus Akingbola was sacked by the central bank a year ago along with the four other bank chiefs and charged with graft and money laundering in absentia after leaving for Britain, where he had remained until the start of this month.

The cases against the bank chiefs are seen as a litmus test of Nigeria's ability to prosecute influential figures accused of financial crimes. The country is regularly ranked one of the most corrupt in the world by transparency watchdogs.

Bail conditions included securing three guarantors who own properties in the commercial hub of Lagos with evidence of their tax clearance.

"I think the bail condition is fair having regards to the facts of the case," Rickey Tarfa, a lawyer for Akingbola told reporters outside the Federal High Court in Ikoyi.

The bail was set high because unlike other bank chiefs, Akingbola left the country after last year's bailout.

Tarfa said Akingbola would remain in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) until the bail conditions were met.

Attempts by the fugitive former governor of Delta State, James Ibori, to seek political asylum in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) ran into a hitch Thursday after police authorities in Dubai revoked the bail it granted him on May 13.

The spokesman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Femi Babafemi, said the commission had received official report on the bail revocation. "I can confirm that Mr Ibori is in custody, we were briefed by the authorities in Dubai," he said.

EFCC sources said his arrest was based on the conviction of his associates in UK, the protest from Nigerian authority and the threat to retrieve the license of flight Emirates Airlines and evidence from the EFCC supporting the fact that he fled from Nigeria to evade justice.

On what the EFCC plans to do next, Mr Babafemi said "we will just continue to ensure that he be brought to answer questions either in Nigeria or in the UK."

The EFCC had declared Mr. Ibori wanted as part of its investigation of alleged misuse of state funds while he was governor. Its operatives were on his trail before he sneaked out of the country and turned up in Dubai.

The former Delta State governor was arrested in Dubai by the police on the orders of the International Police (INTERPOL). The operation is linked to the British Metropolitan Police, who has been fighting to have Mr. Ibori extradited to the United Kingdom to face other fraud charges.

Early this week, his sister, Christine Ibori-Ibie, and his female friend, Udoamaka Okoronkwo, were jailed by a UK court after they were found guilty of all charges of money laundering and mortgage fraud.

The women were also found to have helped the former governor move an estimated £70 million worth of looted funds through several London banks during his reign in office from 1999 to 2007.

Mr. Ibori, who was declared wanted by the anti-graft agency weeks ago, in connection with the illegal disposal of 528 million shares belonging to Delta State in Oceanic Bank, refused to turn himself in and thwarted all efforts by the EFCC and the Nigeria Police to arrest him.

A security source, however, said the revocation of Mr. Ibori's bail, following which he was clamped into a Dubai jail, was only one more step in the efforts of the MET to take him to London..