The Supreme Court, on Friday, reversed the bail granted to Lagos socialite, Fred Ajudua, who is facing trial over his alleged involvement in a $1.43m fraud.
In a unanimous decision of a five-member panel, the apex court ordered that Ajudua be taken back to prison custody.
The court also added that hearing should be resumed in the criminal charges brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
The Embassy of the State of Palestine, in a letter dated August 26, 1993 and addressed to the then Minister of Foreign Affairs and copied to the Inspector General of Police, alleged that Ajudua obtained approximately $1.43m by false pretence from Ziad Abu Zalaf, a Palestinian based in Germany.
Upon the completion of its investigation on the matter, the EFCC filed a 12-count charge against Ajudua before the High Court of Lagos State in Ikeja.
The EFCC alleged that Ajudua conspired with one Joseph Ochunor, who was at large, to obtain money by false pretence from Zalaf of Technical International Ltd, a division of Mystic Company Ltd, a German-based firm.
It further alleged that, with intent to defraud, Ajudua and Ochunor obtained $268,000 on April 2, 1993 and an additional $225,000 on May 12, 1993 from Zalaf.
The EFCC also claimed that Ajudua and Ochunor, in an effort to legitimise the alleged scam, forged receipts from the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and presented them as genuine to the foreigner.
Shortly after his arraignment, Ajudua’s lawyer, Olalekan Ojo, filed an application for his bail pending the trial’s conclusion, citing his client’s serious health challenges.
However, the application was denied by the Lagos High Court presided over by Justice Mojisola Dada, who ordered the defendant to submit to prosecution.
Dissatisfied with the decision, Ajudua appealed the trial court’s decision before the appellate court and got a favourable ruling.
A three-member panel of the Court of Appeal reversed Justice Dada’s decision and granted him bail.
But EFCC appealed the ruling appeal court’s ruling at the Supreme Court.
In its judgment on the appeal marked SC/CR/51/2019, the apex court set aside the bail granted to Ajudua on December 10, 2018 by the appellate court.
In the lead judgment delivered by Justice Chioma Nwosu-Iheme, the Supreme Court faulted the appellate court’s decision, stressing that it had no jurisdiction to grant bail after declaring the brief of argument supporting Ajudua’s appeal as incompetent.
The court ruled that once Ajudua’s brief of argument was deemed incompetent and struck out, there was no basis for the appellate court to proceed further.
“It is crystal clear that the lower court was in line 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,” the apex court stated.
The court further held that the appellate court’s consideration of the arguments in the incompetent brief of argument was an exercise in futility.
“This appeal, having been determined on the issue of jurisdiction alone, renders the issue of bail inseparable from the appeal itself.
“This appeal succeeds and is hereby allowed. The decision of the trial court dated July 5, 2018, refusing bail to the respondent (Ajudua), is hereby restored.