A Lagos high court sitting in Ikeja has fixed February 12, 2014 for the arraignment of Mr. Fred Ajudua, for fresh charges of defrauding a former chief of army staff, Lt.-Gen. Ishaya Bamaiyi (rtd.) of about $8.395million
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, in the fresh charges dated October 14, 2013, alleged that Mr. Ajudua, along with others still at large, had committed the crime between November 2004 and June 2005.
Mr. Ajudua, along with other suspects, are said to have defrauded General Bamaiyi at the Kirikiri Maximum Prisons, where he and the other fraud suspects were on remand for various crimes.
The EFCC claims that the suspects had fraudulently collected the money from General Bamaiyi in parts, falsely claiming that the payments represented the professional fees charged by a legal practitioner, Afe Babalola (SAN) to handle Bamaiyi’s case in court and to facilitate his release from prison.
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.
Justice Oyewole was then presiding over Bamaiyi’s case in court.
Justice Ipaye of the Lagos High Court in Ikeja has adjourned till February 12 for the arraignment, ordering that a warrant of production should be served on the prison authority to produce Ajudua at the next hearing.
