The Supreme Court on Friday ordered Lagos socialite Fred Ajudua to return to prison custody, overturning the bail earlier granted to him by the Court of Appeal.
A five-member panel of the apex court, in a judgement delivered by Justice Chioma Iheme, ruled that the Court of Appeal lacked the jurisdiction to grant Ajudua bail in 2018 after declaring his supporting brief of argument incompetent.
The judgement followed an appeal marked SC/CR/51/2019, filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against the bail ruling.
The court held that once the appellate court struck out Ajudua’s brief of argument, the appeal became extinguished and the court became functus officio, no longer empowered to act on it.
“The respondent is to be remanded in prison custody,” Justice Iheme declared.
The Supreme Court also reinstated the July 5, 2018, decision of Justice Mojisola Dada of the Lagos State High Court, Ikeja, which denied Ajudua bail.
The apex court further directed the Chief Judge of Lagos State to reassign the case to Justice Dada for continuation of trial and speedy determination.
Ajudua is facing a 12-count charge filed by the EFCC over his alleged role in a $1.43 million fraud involving a Palestinian businessman, Ziad Zalaf, in 1993.
He is accused of conspiring with one Joseph Ochunor, who is still at large, to obtain money under false pretence and of forging documents from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to support the scam.
The EFCC had initially failed to secure his remand due to a bail ruling by the Court of Appeal in December 2018, which granted Ajudua temporary freedom on medical grounds.
However, Friday’s Supreme Court decision nullifies that ruling and clears the way for his continued prosecution.
