27th February, 2014
Henry Ojelu&
Irene Nwaro
Justice Oluwatoyin Ipaye of the Ikeja High Court, today fixed March 3, 2014 for ruling on the application filed by fraud kingpin Fred Ajudua against his $8.4 million trial.
Ajudua is standing trial before the court for allegedly defrauding former Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Ishaya Bamaiyi (retd.), of about $8.395m while they were both in prison.
At the last hearing of the case, Ajudua had filed a preliminary objection to his trial insisting that Gen. Bamaiyi should also stand trial for acknowledging that he attempted to bribe a sitting judge through him.
In his argument on the motion today, Ajudua lawyer, Olalekan Ojo further insisted that the Advance Fee Fraud law under which his client was arraigned had since been repealed.
He also argued that the $8.4 million which his client was alleged to have defrauded has not been proven to be Bamaiyi’s personal money.
He urged the court to dismiss the 14 count charge as they were a fundamentally defective and amounts to illegality.
EFCC lawyer, Saidu Atteh however countered the objection saying that issues raised by the defendant were premature and should be addressed during the trial.
He urged that court to dismiss the objection and ask the defendant to take his plea.
The EFCC had alleged that Ajudua, along with others still at large defrauded Gen. Bamaiyi of $8.387m between November 2004 and June 2005 while in prison.
Ajudua is the only defendant in the fresh charges as others who allegedly committed the offences along with
him are said to be at large.
Other suspects, who were said to be on the run, are Alumile Adedeji (a.k.a Ade Bendel) one Mr. Kenneth and Princess Hamabon William.
Ajudua, along with other suspects, were said to have defrauded Bamaiyi at the Kirikiri Maximum Prisons, where he and the other fraud suspects were on remand for various crimes.
EFCC claimed that the suspects had
fraudulently collected the money from Bamaiyi in parts, falsely claiming that the payments represented the professional fees charged by
Chief Afe Babalola (SAN) to handle Bamaiyi’s case in court and to facilitate his release from prison.
The anti-graft agency also alleged that Ajudua and others fraudulently claimed that $1m out of the total money collected from Bamaiyi was for
financial assistance for the treatment of Justice Olubunmi Oyewole’s father. Justice Oyewole was then presiding over Bamaiyi’s case in court.
The suspects were said to have claimed to Bamaiyi that Oyewole’s father was admitted at Saint Nicholas in Lagos and the $1m was meant
to assist the judge in treating his father.
Ajudua is also standing trial in another court for allegedly defrauding two Dutch businessmen, Remy Cina
and Pierre Vijgen, of US$1.69m (about N270m). The matter has been on since 2003.
A list of about 10 witnesses including Gen. Bamaiyi (rtd) and prison official are expected to give evidence in the matter.