Fraud kingpin gets grant of N50 million bail

A Lagos High Court, Ikeja on Tuesday granted bail to alleged fraud kingpin, Mr. Fred Ajudua.

Justice Ganiyu Safari, a vacation judge, in whose court the accused person filed a fresh application on August 19, granted the bail in the sum of N50m with two sureties in like sum.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had opposed the fresh bail application, saying the case had suffered about 40 adjournments since the accused was first granted bail in December 2005 .

EFCC counsel, Mr. Sowemimo Ogunde (SAN), had while opposing the bail application, which he said was the fourth the accused had filed since his trial started in 2003, argued that Ajudua did not deserve any fresh bail having absconded for seven years.

But his counsel, Mr. Olalekan Ojo, arguing the fresh application dated August 19, 2013, said the grounds for the fresh application were premised on fresh facts which emerged after Justice Olubunmi Oyewole declined to grant bail to his client.

In his ruling on Tuesday, Safari held that the medical report attached to the fresh bail application showed that the accused person's deteriorating kidney condition was "grave."

In August, after Justice Oyewole denied Ajudua bail, the accused was said to have been rushed to the emergency unit of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi Araba from custody at the Kirikiri Maximum Prison when he started urinating blood.


Punch