Alleged $ 1.04m Scam: Supreme Court cancels Ajudua’s bail and orders his remand.

ABUJA – On Friday, the Supreme Court invalidated the bail that was granted to Lagos socialite, Fred Ajudua, who is facing trial for his alleged involvement in a $1. 43m scam.

In a unanimous decision, a five-member panel of the highest court ordered that he should be returned to prison custody.

It also directed the resumption of proceedings on the criminal charges the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, brought against him.

The ruling followed an appeal numbered: SC/CR/51/2019, which the EFCC filed in the name of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, FRN.

Ajudua was identified as the sole respondent in the appeal.

In the original ruling presented by Justice Chioma Nwosu-Iheme, the highest court declared the bail granted to the respondent on December 10, 2018, by the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal as void.

Justice Nwosu-Iheme criticized the appellate court, stating that it did not have the authority to grant the respondent after it had already ruled the brief of argument submitted by Ajudua in support of his bail appeal as incompetent.

In the mentioned appeal, Ajudua challenged the July 5, 2018 ruling of trial Justice Mojisola Dada of the High Court of Lagos State, Ikeja, which turned down his request for pre-trial bail.

The Supreme Court noted that after determining that Ajudua’s brief of argument was incompetent and dismissing it, the appellate court erred in continuing to rely on it to approve the Appellant’s bail request.

“It is abundantly clear that the lower court was entirely correct with the law when it declared the appellant’s brief of argument incompetent and struck it out.

“At that point, the appellant’s (Ajudua’s) appeal was nullified. There was thus, nothing more to delve into in that appeal. The lower court, at that stage, lacked the power to proceed further. It had become functus officio,” Justice Nwosu-Iheme asserted.

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She indicated that the appellate court, by proceeding to assess the arguments made in the brief of argument it had previously deemed incompetent, engaged in a pointless endeavor.

“Given that the lower court lacked the power to review other issues presented in the brief of argument, which it had labeled incompetent and struck out, it would be an unnecessary exercise to investigate any other issue in the appeal.

“This appeal, having been resolved solely on the issue of jurisdiction, renders the matter of bail inseparable from the appeal itself.

“This appeal is successful and is therefore granted. The ruling of the trial court dated July 5, 2018, denying bail to the respondent (Ajudua) is hence reinstated.

“The respondent is to be detained in prison custody. Henceforth, this case is remitted to the Chief Judge of Lagos State to be allotted to the same trial judge, M. A. Dada J, for the continuation of expedited trial and resolution within the shortest possible time,” the Supreme Court concluded.
It will be recalled that the Embassy of the State of Palestine, in a correspondence dated August 26, 1993, directed to the then Minister of Foreign Affairs and also sent to the Inspector General of Police, asserted that Ajudua acquired approximately $1. 43 million under deceitful conditions from a Palestinian individual named Ziad Abu Zalaf, who was residing in Germany.

Upon completing the investigation, the EFCC filed a 12-count indictment against Ajudua in the High Court of Lagos State located in Ikeja.

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In the indictment, the EFCC, among other accusations, claimed that Ajudua conspired with a person named Joseph Ochunor, who is still at large, to illegally obtain funds from Ziad Abu Zalaf of Technical International Ltd. , a subsidiary of Mystic Company Ltd. , which operates out of Germany.

It was additionally alleged that, with the intent to deceive, Ajudua and Ochunor received $268,000 on April 2, 1993, from Zalaf and subsequently secured another $225,000 from Zalaf on May 12, 1993.

The EFCC further claimed that Ajudua and Ochunor, in an attempt to substantiate the purported scam, forged receipts from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and presented these documents to the foreign individual as if they were legitimate.

Soon after Ajudua was arraigned, his lawyer, Olalekan Ojo, filed a petition for his client to be granted bail while waiting for the case to be resolved.

Ojo argued that his client was suffering from significant health problems.

Trial Justice Dada rejected the application and ordered the defendant to appear for prosecution.

Dissatisfied with the decision, Ajudua filed an appeal and received a favorable outcome.

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A three-member panel from the Court of Appeal reversed Justice Dada’s decision and granted him bail.

In its leading judgment, given by Justice Mohammed Garba, the appellate court maintained that bail was the constitutional right of the Appellant.

Unhappy with the decision, the EFCC called upon the Supreme Court to overturn it.