The Supreme Court has allowed an appeal made by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), against the decision of the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, which granted bail to a socialite, Fred Ajudua.
Ajudua is standing trial for fraudulently obtaining the sum of $ 1,043,000 from a Palestinian, Zad Abu Zalaf.
At the beginning of the trial in 2005 before Justice M.O. Obadina of the Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja, Ajudua employed several legal technicalities to stall proceedings that made his arraignment difficult.
Afterwards, the matter was re-assigned to Justice J. E Oyefeso and later Justice M.A. Dada before whom he was arraigned on June 4, 2018.
Ajudua challenged his denial of bail at the Lagos Court of Appeal and the appellate court granted him bail on September 10, 2018. Dissatisfied with the judgment, the EFCC approached the apex court in suit number SC/ 51C/ 2019, challenging the judgment of the appellate court.
The Commission also entered another appeal before the apex court in suit number SC/912C/2018 against the Court of Appeal Lagos’ judgment ordering the case to be transferred from the court of Justice Dada of the Lagos State High Court to another judge for the case to start de novo.
Delivering judgment on the appeals on Friday, the Supreme Court allowed the EFCC’s appeals and revoked Ajudua’s bail granted to him by the Court of Appeal, Lagos and reinstated the ruling of Justice Dada which declined to grant him bail.
The Supreme Court also ordered that Fred Ajudua be remanded in the Correctional Centre.
The Court further directed that the Chief Judge of Lagos State should reassign the case to Justice Dada to continue the trial.
The apex court further held that the appeal in appeal no SC/912C/2019 has become academic since the prayer in that appeal was against an order of the Court of Appeal, Lagos, transferring the case to another court to start the case de novo.
PROFILE OF A SHADY KINGPIN
Fred Ajudua, an Ibusa native in Delta State, studied law and graduated from the University of Benin, Edo State.
In March 1994, Newswatch Magazine published an article saying that I.G Aliyu Atta, at that time Inspector-General of Police, cancelled a meeting with senior police officers in order to receive Ajudua.
Aliyu Atta sued the magazine for libel but did not succeed.
In 2000 he was reported as having served five years of prison at Kirikiri and Agodi.
In October 2003, Alhaji Nuhu Ribadu, Chairman of the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), said that Ajudua had twelve cases pending against him including an advance fee fraud of 1.6 million Euros and another of $1.5 million, both committed in 2001.
He was accused of collecting money from Nelson Allen, a Canadian who lost $250,000. A German was said to have lost $350,000 to him.
He was said to have tricked more than $1.69-million out of two Dutch nationals between 1999 and 2000.
On July 26, 2005 the German woman, Frieda Springer-Beck, agreed to an out-of-court settlement after a long series of inconclusive court appearances dating back to 1993.
After his imprisonment, while awaiting trial for fraud, he was appointed to teach basic law.
Ajudua was granted bail to seek medical attention in India on 3 February 2005. Hearing that he was back in Nigeria, the EFCC attempted to arrest him on 20 March 2007 at a beer parlour in Ibusa. The move was thwarted by armed thugs.
The commission appealed to anyone who has information that could lead to the fugitive’s arrest.
In 2007, the Administrative Panel of Inquiry on Reports of Alleged Corrupt Practices recommended that Ajudua’s wife should not run for political office on the basis of an EFCC report that she had been involved in a conspiracy to obtain $7.85M and $3Million under false pretense and had used money from fraud to campaign for election, although the panel noted that there was no direct evidence linking her to the activities of her husband.
