Fred Ajudua
The Special Offences Division of the Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja has rejected the fresh bail application filed by businessman, Fred Ajudua, who is standing trial for alleged $1.04 million scam.
Ajudua is standing trial for allegedly defrauding a Palestinian national, Zad Abu Zalaf, of the sum of $1,043,000 (One Million, Forty-Three Thousand U.S. Dollars) under false pretences.
Through his counsel, Olalekan Ojo (SAN), Ajudua had asked Justice Mojisola Dada to admit him to bail on health ground pending the determination of his trial.
Ojo told the court that his client, who was assisted to court by some medical personnel from the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), has a chronic kidney disease whereupon he urged the court to grant his client bail to enable him to attend to his health challenges.
His argument that his client has to be alive to face judgment fell on deaf ears as counsel to the EFCC, Seidu Atteh, raised objections to the request for bail, averring that the defendant was already before the Supreme Court seeking certain reliefs, and he should have directed his application to that court. He urged the trial court to refuse bail.
But in his counter arguments, Ojo insisted that Ajudua was not before the Supreme Court to seek bail, and there was no nexus between the application seeking to set aside the May 9 judgment of the Supreme Court and the instant application for bail.
In her ruling, Justice Dada held that: “In view of the applications filed at the Supreme Court, I am constrained to make any decision with respect to this instant application filed by the defence counsel. I will abide by the decisions of the Supreme Court.”
The Court subsequently adjourned to October 10, 31 and November 20 for continuation of the trial.
Before deciding on bail, the court listened to the testimony of the third prosecution witness, an investigator with the EFCC, Afanda Bashir Emmanuel.
The witness told the court that he met Ajudua in 2005, shortly after the establishment of the EFCC, and the defendant’s case file was handed over by the Special Fraud Unit (SFU) of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) to the Advance Fee Fraud Section of the Commission, where he worked.
He also testified that in the course of the investigation, the Commission had cause to write to the NPF, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and the forensic lab of the EFCC to seek some documents in the investigation.
The defence counsel rejected a move by the EFCC to tender the documents in question as evidence. The counsel argued that the documents were not admissible as they were not original documents nor certified true copies of the public documents. The counsel also argued that the EFCC counsel was not the maker of the document and had laid no foundation for the photocopies tendered.
After counter arguments by the EFCC counsel, Justice Dada in her ruling, rejected two of the documents and admitted another two in evidence as exhibits.
The court subsequently adjourned to allow the defendant’s counsel to prepare to cross-examine the witness.
