Court Fixes 'Judgement Day' On Ajudua’s $8.4mn Scam Case
Justice Oluwatoyin Ipaye of the Ikeja High Court, on Thursday, fixed March 3, 2014 for ruling on the application filed by fraud kingpin, Fred Ajudua against his $8.4 million trial.
* Ajudua
Ajudua is standing trial before the court for allegedly defrauding former Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Ishaya Bamaiyi (retd.), of about $8.395m while they were both in prison.
At the last hearing of the case, Ajudua had filed a preliminary objection to his trial insisting that Gen. Bamaiyi should also stand trial for acknowledging that he attempted to bribe a sitting judge through him.
In his argument on the motion today, Ajudua lawyer, Olalekan Ojo further insisted that the Advance Fee Fraud law under which his client was arraigned had since been repealed.
He also argued that the $8.4 million which his client was alleged to have defrauded has not been proven to be Bamaiyi’s personal money.
He urged the court to dismiss the 14 count charge as they were a fundamentally defective and amounts to illegality.
EFCC lawyer, Saidu Atteh however countered the objection saying that issues raised by the defendant were premature and should be addressed during the trial.
He urged that court to dismiss the objection and ask the defendant to take his plea.
The EFCC had alleged that Ajudua, along with others still at large defrauded Gen. Bamaiyi of $8.387m between November 2004 and June 2005 while in prison.
Ajudua is also standing trial in another court for allegedly defrauding two Dutch businessmen, Remy Cinaand Pierre Vijgen, of US$1.69m (about N270m). The matter has been on since 2003.
A list of about 10 witnesses including Gen. Bamaiyi (rtd) and prison official are expected to give evidence in the matter.
Source: Legit.ng
