Controversial lawyer-cum-socialite and alleged advance fee fraud kingpin Fred Ajudua’s bid to regain his freedom was today squashed before a Lagos Court as the judge in charge of the $1 million scam case against him ordered that he be remanded in custody ahead of trial.
The latest development is another crushing blow for Fred whose alleged escapades in the 90s and early 2000s have entered into urban legend. These days the alleged 419 kingpin is in and out of court on multiple cases of fraud brought against him by the EFCC.
After listening to the arguments of Ajudua’s lawyer for his client to be granted bail, Justice Mojisola Dada of the Ikeja Special Offences Court struck out his application and ordered him to be returned to jail ahead of the commencement of the substantive trial on June 5, 2018. Ajudua is standing trial on a 12-count amended charge of conspiracy to obtain money by false pretences, obtaining money by false pretences, issuing forged documents and forgery.
Everything that could go wrong seems to be going wrong for Ajudua. The German whose company he allegedly conned to the tune of $1 million has jetted into the country and has even been provided with an interpreter from the German embassy in order to testify in the case.
The EFCC led by its lead lawyer Seidu Atteh is accusing Ajudua of defrauding the German Ziad Abu Zalaf of various sums of money cumulatively totalling $1.04 million between April and June 1993. He was allegedly duped in his capacity as a representative of Technical International Ltd., a division of Mystic Company Ltd., a German-based company. Ajudua is pleading not guilty to the charges.
They claimed that Ajudua, in connivance with one Joseph Ochunor who is still at large, forged several CBN receipts and a certificate from the NNPC with intention to deceive the German and his company into believing that they were involved in a legitimate transaction.
Now that the court has rejected his application for bail, and having earlier thrown out an application challenging the jurisdiction of the court to hear the case, it seems Ajudua and his lawyers are now at their wits end. None of their stratagems to extricate him from the case is working. He can only meekly await trial like a lamb led to the slaughter slab.