Court Grants EFCC Request To Produce Foreign Witness Against Ajudua
Adetokunbo Fakeye
An Ikeja High Court in Lagos today granted a request by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to produce its foreign witness in the fraud charges preferred against an alleged fraud kingpin, Mr. Fred Ajudua.
EFCC counsel, Chief Wemimo Ogunde (SAN), told Justice Kudirat Jose that the prosecution needed 21 days to produce the witness.
The judge fixed May 23 for the trial to commence after it overruled the defence’s application for adjournment.
Ajudua and his co-accused, Charles Orie, are being prosecuted for allegedly defrauding two foreign businessmen of $1.69m (N270m) between July 1999 and September 2000.
The accused were said to have defrauded the foreigners by collecting the money in tranches on the pretext that it was meant for “sundry payments to government officials” to secure an $18m worth of contract with number, FMA/PED/3040/S92.
The accused persons were re-arraigned before Justice Jose on February 5, 2014, following the withdrawal of the former trial judge, Justice Olubunmi Oyewole (now elevated to the Court of Appeal) from the case.
The re-arraignment came more than 10 years after the charges were instituted against the accused on July 24, 2003.
On Monday, the prosecution said it was unable to produce its witness for the commencement of trial since it was not sure how the proceedings would go.
He said the defence led by Mr. Olalekan Ojo had on April 25 (Friday) served the prosecution with an application for stay of proceedings.
He added that the defence later called to inform him that the application was filed in error.
“We were put on a wrong alert,” Ogunde said.
He added, “Ojo and I started this case 11 years ago. Witnesses in this matter come from abroad and it would be a waste of tax payer’s money to bring this witness only to discover they are not needed.
“We need 21 days to produce our witness.”
But Ojo asked the court to reject the request for 21 days, saying such a long adjournment would be unfair to his client who had been denied bail.
“Twenty-one days is too long for an accused person who has been denied bail,” he said.
The matter started afresh after about six witnesses, two of whom were foreigners, had earlier testified before it was re-assigned to a new judge, Justice Jose. Over 50 court sessions have been conducted on the case since 2003.
Jose, before whom the two accused pleaded not guilty to the four counts of fraud.
After the re-arraignment, Jose ordered Ajudua and Orie to be remanded in prison pending the hearing of their bail applications on February 19.
The judge turned down the request by Ajudua’s lawyer, Mr. Olalekan Ojo, to allow his client to meet the bail conditions instead of being made to file a fresh bail application.
In a ruling on the bail application, Ajudua was denied bail while Orie was released on bail.