The Supreme Court has revoked the bail earlier granted to former Lagos socialite Fred Ajudua, who has been facing about three decades old fraud charges.
The court, in a unanimous judgement of its panel of justices on Friday in Abuja, ordered Mr Ajudua’s immediate return to prison while his trial continues.
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It allowed two separate appeals filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), challenging a 2018 decision of the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, which granted bail to Mr Ajudua and transferred his case to a new judge for a fresh trial.
The suits were marked SC/912C/2018 and SC/ 51C/ 2019 respectively.
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The EFCC’s Head of Media and Publicity Dele Oyewale in a statement confirmed the ruling, saying that Mr Ajudua is standing trial for allegedly obtaining over $1 million ($1,043,000) from a Palestinian, Zad Abu Zalaf, under false pretences in 1993.
Mr Ajudua faces a 12 amended counts conspiracy to obtain money by false pretence, forgery, and uttering forged documents before trial judge Mojisola Dada of the Lagos State High Court, Ikeja.
“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,” Mr Oyewale stated.
He noted that the Supreme Court restored the ruling of Ms Dada, who had previously refused Mr Ajudua bail due to what she described as a history of frustrating judicial proceedings.
Case timeline
The fraud case, which has spanned about decades, was first assigned to M.O. Obadina in 2005.
Mr Ajudua failed to appear in court on at least 24 occasions between 2005 and 2009, stalling his arraignment.
The case was eventually struck out in 2009 and only reinstated in 2017 following EFCC’s application to re-list the matter.
In June 2018, Mr Ajudua was finally arraigned before Ms Dada after the case had passed through multiple judges.
However, the Court of Appeal later granted him bail and ordered that the case be transferred to a new judge to start afresh.
But the EFCC was dissatisfied with the appellate court’s decisions, and approached the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court agreed with the commission and reversed both rulings.
The Supreme Court ordered Mr Ajudua’s remand in a correctional facility and directed that the case continue before Ms Dada.
Key witness testimony
At the heart of the allegations is the testimony of German businessman Michael Kreamer, who claimed he was introduced to Mr Ajudua through Mr Zalaf.
Mr Kreamer, a luxury car dealer, testified that he gave Mr Zalaf $550,000 in cash in 1993 to support a purported business deal with Ajudua in Nigeria.
Testifying before Ms Dada, Mr Kreamer recounted how he was convinced of Mr Ajudua’s credibility after visiting an office filled with exotic cars and men in uniform.
He said he handed over the money after receiving what he thought was a legitimate receipt signed by Mr Ajudua.
However, upon returning to Germany, he received no communication from Mr Zalaf and eventually discovered he had been defrauded.
According to the EFCC, Mr Ajudua and his alleged accomplice, Joseph Ochunor (still at large), forged documents purportedly issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to give the scam credibility.
The prosecution said they fraudulently obtained $268,000 from Mr Zalaf on 2 April 1993, and an additional $225,000 on 12 May 1993.
Medical bail controversy
Mr Ajudua, who previously claimed to suffer from serious health conditions including a single functional kidney, had secured bail on medical grounds in a similar case before another judge, Josephine Oyefeso.
The defence’s lawyer, Norrison Quakers who is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), argued for similar leniency in the current case.
But the EFCC opposed the application, citing Mr Ajudua’s history of absconding and failing to meet court dates.
Mr Dada denied him bail, ruling that the health-related adjournments had already delayed the trial for over 13 years and that further delays were unjustifiable.
Judgement
In its ruling, the Supreme Court held that the appeal challenging the transfer of the case to another judge for a new trial had become academic, since it had also reversed the bail decision.
It directed the Chief Judge of Lagos State to ensure the matter resumes promptly before Ms Dada.
Mr Ajudua was remanded in custody immediately after the judgement.
