The Supreme Court has voided the bail earlier granted to Lagos socialite Fred Ajudua, who is currently facing trial for his alleged involvement in a $1.43 million fraud scheme.
In a unanimous verdict delivered on Friday, a five-member panel of the apex court directed that Ajudua be returned to prison custody.
The court also ordered the continuation of the trial on charges filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
The ruling stemmed from an appeal marked SC/CR/51/2019, filed by the EFCC on behalf of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, listing Ajudua as the sole respondent.
Delivering the lead judgment, Justice Chioma Nwosu-Iheme nullified the bail granted by the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal on December 10, 2018.
She criticized the appellate court, asserting it lacked jurisdiction after it had already struck out Ajudua’s brief of argument as incompetent.
Ajudua had appealed the July 5, 2018 decision of Justice Mojisola Dada of the Lagos State High Court in Ikeja, which denied his pre-trial bail request.
The Supreme Court held that once the Court of Appeal ruled Ajudua’s brief as incompetent and struck it out, the appeal ceased to exist.
“It is crystal clear that the lower court was on all fours 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 extinguished. There was therefore, nothing more to consider in that appeal. The lower court, at that point, had no jurisdiction to proceed further. It had become functus officio,” Justice Nwosu-Iheme stated.
She further criticized the appellate court’s decision to deliberate on the same brief it had declared void.
“Since the lower court had no jurisdiction to consider other issues canvassed in the brief of argument, which it had declared incompetent and struck out, it would amount to an academic exercise to delve into any other issue in the appeal.
“This appeal, having been determined on the issue of jurisdiction alone, the issue of bail is inseparable from the appeal itself.”
The apex court allowed the EFCC’s appeal, restoring the earlier ruling by the trial court that denied bail to Ajudua.
“This appeal succeeds and it is hereby allowed. The decision of the trial court dated the 5th day of July 2018 refusing bail to the respondent (Ajudua) is hereby restored.
“The respondent is to be remanded in prison custody. Accordingly, this case is remitted back to the Chief Judge of Lagos State to be assigned to the same trial judge, M. A. Dada J for the continuation of speedy trial and determination within the shortest possible time,” the court ruled.
The case dates back to a letter sent by the Embassy of the State of Palestine on August 26, 1993, addressed to Nigeria’s then Minister of Foreign Affairs and copied to the Inspector General of Police.
The letter alleged that Ajudua defrauded a Palestinian national, Ziad Abu Zalaf, of $1.43 million under false pretenses.
Following investigations, the EFCC brought a 12-count charge against Ajudua before the Lagos State High Court in Ikeja.
The commission alleged that Ajudua and one Joseph Ochunor, who remains at large, conspired to defraud Zalaf, a representative of Technical International Ltd., a German-based firm.
According to the EFCC, Ajudua and his accomplice fraudulently obtained $268,000 on April 2, 1993, and an additional $225,000 on May 12, 1993, from Zalaf.
To support the scam, they reportedly forged receipts purportedly from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which they presented as authentic.
Upon arraignment, Ajudua’s lawyer, Olalekan Ojo, applied for bail on medical grounds, claiming his client had a serious health condition.
The trial court, presided over by Justice Dada, denied the application and instructed Ajudua to face prosecution.
Dissatisfied with the ruling, Ajudua approached the Court of Appeal, which granted him bail. In its ruling, Justice Mohammed Garba stated that bail was Ajudua’s constitutional right.
The EFCC, however, challenged the ruling at the Supreme Court, which has now overturned the bail and instructed that the trial resume promptly.
