Lawyer cum businessman, Chief Fred Ajudua, Dike Anioma and Onwa Igbuzo is set to slug it out with ex-Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Ishaya Bamaiyi (rtd).
The defence counsel to Fred Ajudua, Mr. Olalekan Ojo (SAN) has challenged the former Chief of Army Staff to provide proof of the source of the $8.4m his client allegedly defrauded him of in 2004. He gave the challenge on Thursday, December 20, 2018 at an Ikeja High Court at the resumed trial of Ajudua for the alleged fraud.
Reports had it that Ajudua allegedly defrauded Bamaiyi of $8.4m while they were both in custody in Kirikiri Prisons in 2004. Bamaiyi was in custody for treason, while Ajudua was in custody for fraud-related offences.
Ajudua, alongside some accomplices, had allegedly approached Bamaiyi and convinced him that he could hire the legal services of Chief Afe Babalola (SAN) to help secure his freedom, with Bamaiyi giving Ajudua $8.4m as legal fees.
Interestingly, when the alleged fraud came to light, the law chambers of Afe Babalola & Co. issued a disclaimer disassociating itself from the case.
However, during Thursday’s proceedings, Ojo announced to the court that he had been re-engaged by Ajudua to represent him and had requested for the Certified True Copy of the last court proceedings held on November 26 to keep him abreast of recent happenings in the case.
Ojo said; “After reading the records of proceedings, I discovered that several issues necessitate us requesting the learned counsel to the prosecution to avail of certain documents related to the evidence given by the first prosecution witness (Bamaiyi).”
“These include evidence of alleged sale of items of landed property, the proceeds of which, according to the witness, formed part of the sources of funds he claimed to have handed to the defendant. The other pieces of evidence relates to the alleged transactions that took place at the Kirikiri Maximum Prisons. There is a need to write letters to the prison for some clarifications for us to conduct a very thorough investigation.”
“There was nowhere in the proof of evidence, where the former Chief of Army Staff had stated that he had sold some specific landed money to raise the funds he gave to Ajudua. Ajudua had been granted bail by the Court of Appeal on December 10 for another fraud case he has pending before Justice Mojisola Dada of an Ikeja Special Offences Court.”
“My Lord, I got the CTC of the proceedings at 3pm on Wednesday and it was virtually impossible for me to have any discussion with the defendant. We are not blaming anybody for this because, in other courts, the CTC of proceedings won’t be ready as quickly as this because of the volume of work.”