Court adjourns alleged $5m fraud trial till March 25

Glory Ebomah

Justice Mojisola Dada of the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos, on Tuesday, February 8, 2022, adjourned till March 25, 2022, for the continuation of trial in the alleged $5million (Five Million United States Dollars) fraud case involving Victor Uadiale and Capt. Everest Nnaji.

Uadiale and Nnaji are being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on a three-count charge bordering on obtaining by false pretence.

One of the counts reads: “That you, Victor Uadiale (aka Victor Emeka/Amaka Emeka), Captain Everest Nnaji, and Ismail Lawal (now at large) between 22nd April and 12th day of October 1998, in Lagos within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, with intent to defraud, obtained the aggregate sum of $1,292,000.00 (One Million, Two Hundred and Ninety-two Thousand United States Dollar) from  Tawfeeq A. Al-Omar, a Kuwaiti national, by falsely representing to him that the said sum represented payment for Urea Phosphate fertilizer, which you claimed was procured from National Fertilizer Company of Nigeria (NAFCON), Port Harcourt and Bonny Light crude oil, which pretext you knew to be false and committed an offence contrary to  Section 1(3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, No. 13 of 1995 as amended by Act No. 62 of 1999.”

They pleaded ‘not guilty’, when they were first arraigned on December 14, 2018.

At the resumed sitting today, Ezeh Asiegwu, staff at the Head Office of Keystone Bank, testified as to the fifth prosecution witness.

Led in evidence by the prosecuting counsel, Kufre Uduak, he testified on Exhibit P53 and P58, being responses from the bank to the EFCC with regards to the investigation into the alleged fraud.

He said: “My responsibilities include reviewing records upon inquiries, responding to inquiries, relating with law enforcement agencies as well as customers.

“In respect of this case, sometime in 2013, we got a letter of inquiry from EFCC that was accompanied with the copy of a cheque.

“When we received the letter, we reviewed our records and responded to the EFCC based on their inquiry.

“The response to the EFCC stated that the said cheque presented, was not authentic.”

He further testified that the said account was maintained as a Naira account and not a dollar account, the denomination in which the cheque was issued.

Under cross-examination by counsel to the first defendant, Olalekan Ojo, SAN, on whether he was directly involved in reviewing the authenticity of the cheque, the witness replied in the affirmative.

He said: “In my bank, we work as a team.

“I was not in the team, but when I was invited to testify, I reviewed the records again this week, and what the team saw then, is what I still saw.”

The case has been adjourned till March 25, 2022, for the continuation of trial.