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BY ABDULWAHAB ABDULAH
Lagos — The absence of a Lagos based lawyer, Mr. Fred Ajudua from court,
yesterday, prevented his fresh arraignment before an Ikeja High Court
for allegedly defrauding ex- Chief of Army Staff, COAS, Major General
Ishaya Bamaiyi of the sum of $8.395m (N1.2bn) while he was in prison.
Expected, Ajudua was to be arraigned on a 13-count charge of conspiracy
and fraud alongside Elumile Adedeji (a.k.a Ade Bendel), Kenneth and
Princess Hamabon William now at large.
Ajudua alongside other suspects allegedly defrauded Bamaiyi at the
Kirikiri Maximum Prisons, where he and the other fraud suspects were
remanded.
Ajudua, currently answering various charges bordering on advanced fee
fraud pressed against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, EFCC, according to his lawyer, Richard Ahonaruogho, was
absent because he was only aware of the matter on Saturday, adding that
his client was ill.
The anti-graft agency also alleged that Ajudua and others fraudulently
claimed that $1m out of the total money collected from Bamaiyi was for
financial assistance for the treatment of Justice Olubunmi Oyewole’s
father, who was handling Bamaiyi’s case then.
Also, the former COAS, was said to have parted with the money in foreign
currency to also bribe some eminent personalities to intervene in his
case where he was charged alongside Major Hamza Al-Mustapha for the
alleged murder of late Alhaja Kudirat Abiola. He was latter discharged
and acquitted by the trial court.
The suspects were said to have informed Bamaiyi that Oyewole’s father,
was admitted at Saint Nicholas in Lagos and the $1m was meant to assist
the judge in treating his father.
Justice Ipaye then adjourned till February 12, 2014 for the arraignment,
while she ordered that warrant of production should be served on the
prison authority to produce Ajudua at the next hearing date.
The offences of conspiracy and obtaining by false pretences were said to
be contrary to Sections 8(a) and 1(3) of the Advance Fee Fraud Related
Offences Act. No. 13 of 1995 as ammended by Act No. 62 of 1999.Source
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