Admin I Wednesday, March 25.26
LAGOS, Nigeria – A Special Offences Court, sitting in Ikeja, Lagos, has adjourned the bail application of alleged serial fraudster and businessman Ufoma Joseph charged before the court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to 31st March, 2026 due to his absence in today’s proceedings.
Justice Mojisola Dada said this when lead defence applicant lawyer, Mr. Olawale Akoni (SAN), applied to move the bail application of the defendant in absentia.
The defendant who is charged alongside Intermediate Investment Holdings Limited is facing two count charge of $1.5 million bordering on obtaining by false pretence and forgery.
The Offences are contrary to Section 1(1)(a) and 1(3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Offences Act. 2006. The forgery offence is contrary to Section 363 and punishable under Section 365 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.
According to Akoni, there are two applications before the court, praying the court to move the two applications as applied to withdraw the first application for the abridgement of time, saying the application had been overtaken by the event.
“We have two applications. The first has been overtaken by event. That is the abridgement of time. I’ll proceed to the business of the day,” the defence counsel said.
But the prosecution counsel Babatunde Shonoiki in his response to the court said the defendant is facing multiple charges in courts in Abuja and Lagos.
He informed the court that Ufoma will soon be charged again be the Nigeria Police INTERPOL department, insisting that the defendant has many cases pending before courts.
The prosecution passionately prayed the court to adjourn the bail application to the 13th April, 2026, stressing that the defendant is currently in Abuja and might be difficult for him to be brought to court on 24th March, 2026 which the defendant counsel applied for.
“My Lord, the defendant is currently in Abuja. He has multiple cases in Lagos and Abuja. He will soon be arraign again by the INTERPOL. The administrative bureaucracy may makes it difficult to bring him to court on the 31st March, 2026.
“I’m appealing to my lord to adjourn the case to 13th April, 2026. By then, I know that we would have enough time to bring him to court to attend this court,” Shonoiki said.
According to the counter affidavit sworn to by Idi Musa an investigator of the anti-graft commission on the first defendant summon for bail, the first defendant was said not to honour the terms of administrative bail granted him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
“Immediately the first defendant was granted administrative bail, he disappeared, became a fugitive and resorted to the use of fundamental rights enforcement action through his counsel as a tool to frustrate the complainant and stop his trial.
“Upon conclusion of the investigation, a primary facie of obtaining by false pretence and forgery were established against him, and upon filling this charge before this court all efforts to reach him and his sureties proved abortive,” he affirmed.
Justice Dada thereafter adjourned the summon for bail application to 31st March, 2026.
