Alleged $1.04m fraud: Court refuses Ajudua fresh bail application,
By Innocent Anaba
LAGOS—Justice Mojisola Dada of the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos, yesterday, refused the fresh bail application by Fred Ajudua.
Ajudua is standing trial over alleged defrauding of a Palestinian national, Zad Abu Zalaf, of $1,043,000 under false pretences and he is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Recall that the Supreme Court on May 5, 2025, revoked the bail granted Ajudua by the Court of Appeal, Lagos, and reinstated the ruling of Justice Dada, which declined to grant him bail.
At yesterday’s proceeding, the defendant was present in court, accompanied by some medical personnel from Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LUTH.
His counsel said the defendant was in court with the assistance of medical personnel from LUTH, as he has a chronic kidney disease and urged the court to admit him to bail pending the determination of his trial.
But the prosecution objected to the prayer.
Justice Dada in her ruling held that she was inclined to await the outcome of the decision of the Supreme Court and to abide by the same.
The judge said: “In view of the applications filed at the Supreme Court, I am constrained to make any decision with respect to this instant application filed by the defence counsel. I will abide by the decisions of the Supreme Court.”
The court, thereafter adjourned to October 10, 31 and November 20, for continuation of the trial.
Earlier, prosecution witness (PW) 3, Afanda Emmanuel was called into the witness box.
Defence objected that the witness has no statement, but the prosecution said that the statement of the witness was filed with additional prove, together with additional statement on September 17, 2018.
However, court allowed witness, an EFCC operative to give his evidence.
The witness in his narration, said: “Sometimes in 2005, the Nigeria Police Special Fraud Unit, SFU,
handed over some cases to us at the EFCC. One of it is defendant case, the file was further transferred for investigation.’
“Sometimes in year 2011, I was directed then by the head of the team to study the fille. In the case file, there was a letter earlier written by Nigeria police force to the Central Bank of Nigeria and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.”
The defence objected to a move by the EFCC to tender the documents in question as evidence, arguing that the documents were not admissible as they were not original documents nor certified true copies of the public documents and that EFCC was not the maker of the document and had laid no foundation for the photocopies tendered.
Justice Dada in her ruling, rejected two of the documents and admitted another two in evidence as exhibits.
The court subsequently adjourned to allow the defendant’s counsel cross-examine the witness.
The case, which began in 2005 before Justice Morenike Obadina of the Lagos State High Court, Ikeja, has suffered many delays.
The matter was reassigned to Justice Josephine Oyefeso and later to Justice Mojisola Dada, before Ajudua was finally arraigned on June 4, 2018.
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Justice Mojisola Dada of the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos, yesterday, refused the fresh bail application by Fred Ajudua.
The post Alleged $1.04m fraud: Court refuses Ajudua fresh bail application appeared first on Vanguard News.
, , Idowu Bankole, {authorlink},, , Vanguard News, July 31, 2025, 2:00 am
