EMMANUEL UKUDOLO I Thursday, July 05, 2018
IKEJA, Lagos, Nigeria – Renowned fraudster, Fred Ajudua wept profusely on Thursday when Justice Mojisola Dada of a Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, ordered his transfer from Ikoyi Prison where he has spent several days to Kirikiri prison, after turning down his application for bail.
The judge ruled that Fred Ajudua be kept in detention pending determination of his trial and that convinced that granting Ajudua bail would further truncate his trial that has suffered series of setback since his first arraignment on March 5, 2009 before Justice Oyefeso.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, had re-arraigned Fred Ajudua before Justice Dada following the reassignment of the case file by the Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Opeyemi Oke. The Chief Judge reassigned it to the Special Court for accelerated hearing.
Fred Ajudua was allegedly to have defrauded one Ziad Abu Zalaf of Technical International Limited, a German-based firm of one million dollars. Ajudua, who pleaded not guilty to the twelve count charges bordering on conspiracy and fraud.
The EFCC alleged that Ajudua and his accomplice, Joseph Ochunor, had sometime in 1993 carried out the act by forging Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, official receipt numbers 128 and 138 the bank issued to Zalaf as genuine.
In his ruling, Justice Mojisola Dada ordered that Ajudua be transferred from Ikoyi to Kirikiri Prison where he was earlier remanded pending the ruling coming up September 27, 2018.
