$1.69m fraud: Ajudua applies for bail for fourth time

A one-time Lagos socialite, Fred Ajudua, on Wednesday filed for the fourth time an application for bail before an Ikeja High Court.

Ajudua and one Charles Orie are being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for an alleged fraud.

The two men are standing trial for allegedly defrauding two Dutch businessmen – Messrs Remy Cina and Pierre Vijgen – of $1.69 million (N252.8 million).

The fresh application, filed before a vacation judge, Justice Ganiyu Safari, is the fourth since the trial began in 2003.

The former trial judge, Justice Joseph Oyewole, had on June 27 dismissed Ajudua’s bail application and ordered him to be remanded at the Kirikiri Maximum Prisons.

In the latest application, Ajudua’s counsel, Olalekan Ojo, urged the court to grant him bail on “exceptional circumstances”.

Ojo said that Ajudua was currently on admission at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, where he was rushed to, on August 3 after his health deteriorated.

He said: “At the time of filing this application, the first defendant (Ajudua) was still urinating blood. His condition was so bad that he was rushed to the Emergency Unit of LUTH.’’

According to him, Ajudua should be granted bail to enable him to have access to proper treatment, which was lacking in the prisons and EFCC custody.

Ojo said: “The Nigerian legal system does not take delight in the death of an inmate awaiting trial. He has just one kidney left.

“Is there any justification, in view of these fresh facts, to continue to remand him in prison custody?”

Ojo tendered a medical report dated August 12 and issued by Dr. Adebisi Ogunjimi of LUTH to support his submissions.

However, EFCC’s counsel, Wemimo Ogunde (SAN), opposed the application, and urged the court to dismiss it.

Ogunde said that Ajudua’s antecedents since the case began showed that he was not ready to face trial.

He said that Ajudua absconded after he was granted bail by Oyewole on the same grounds of ill-health in February 2005.

He submitted that this made the judge to revoke the bail adding that “The first defendant might interfere with prosecution or even abscond as he did previously.

“The medical report from LUTH shows that he is responding to treatment and no longer urinating blood.”

The court adjourned the case till September 10 for ruling on the application.