Alleged $8.4m fraud: EFCC urges court to dismiss Ajudua’s application

IKEJA, Lagos, Nigeria – The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on February 19, 2019, urged Justice Josephine Oyefeso of the Lagos State High Court, sitting in Ikeja, Lagos to dismiss an application filed by alleged serial fraudster, Fred Ajudua.

Ajudua allegedly defrauded former Chief of Army Staff, Ishaya Bamaiyi of $8.4m while both were in Kirikiri Prison custody in 2004 for different offences.

Ojo stated that the documents were needed for the conduct of the cross-examination of PW1, Bamaiyi, and other witnesses.

Ajudua, alongside some accomplices, had allegedly approached Bamaiyi and convinced him that he could hire the legal services of Chief Afe Babalola, SAN, at the cost of $8.4m to help secure his release.
At the resumed hearing on Tuesday, counsel to the defendant,  Olalekan Ojo, SAN, moved a motion on notice dated February 6, 2019, seeking the prosecution to provide the defendant with the documents listed in the schedule of documents attached to Exhibit A.

The schedule of the documents, Ojo stated includes certified true copies of sales agreement in respect of the property the PW1 claimed to have sold to raise the money; evidence of payment; particulars of persons from whom he got the funds and evidence of amount of money he got from his friends.

Others are: visitor’s book from 2005; evidence of visit from the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, by him or his associates; copies of applications for visit; records showing his visits and copies of the documents by which payments for the property were effected.

Ojo, who supported the application with a written address, therefore, urged the court to grant his application so as to “discover the truth and get justice.”

However, in a counter-affidavit from the prosecution counsel, S.K. Atteh urged the court to dismiss the application, arguing that the prosecution was neither in possession of all the items listed, nor in position to furnish the defendant with the documents.