By Jude-Ken Ojinnaka
A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has adjourned until March 5, re-arraignment of three defendants charged with N26.4 million fraud.
The defendants are: Ayoola Kelani, Chizoba Emesiana and Sodiq Hassan.
The trio are standing trial before the court on a seven-counts charge bordering on obtaining money by false pretences, forgery, money laundering, and computer related fraud.
They were first arraigned before Justice Nicholas Oweibo, on June 14, 2019, and had pleaded not guilty to the charge.
The case had come up on various dates like June 3, 2019, June 13, 2019, June 14, 2019, October 22, 2019, January 28, 2020 among other dates. On some adjourned dates , trial could not proceed following absence of the defendants.
Meanwhile, Justice Oweibo has been transferred out of the Lagos division of the court and the case was moved to a new judge, Justice Isaac Dipeolu.
When the case was called on Thursday, the prosecutor, Mr Chukwu Agwu, Senior counsel with the Police Special Fraud Unit, submitted that the case was coming up before the court for the first time after the transfer of the previous judge .
He told the court that the defendants and their counsel had also failed to attend trial before the previous judge, on several dates, including the last adjourned date.
Agwu, then told the court that he will get in touch with the Investigating Police Officer (IPO) in charge of the case, adding that if the defendants fail to appear on the next date, he will apply for a bench warrant for their arrest.
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The court consequently, adjourned the case until March 5, for further proceedings.
In the charge, the prosecutor alleged that the defendants committed the offence between February 2017 and February 2019 in Lagos .
He alleged that the defendants conspired with others at large, to obtain the total sum of N26.4 million by false pretences.
According to the prosecutor, the first defendant, alongside the second defendant who goes with a user name of “Jenniecassie” and the third defendant with a user name of “King smoker” committed a felony .
He alleged that they conspired to obtain the sum of N3.7 million from one “Winners Golden Bet”, a subsidiary of “Winners Golden Chance Ventures Ltd ” represented by one Tonade Olaoluwa, by hacking and manipulating their computer network.
They were alleged to have represented to the company that they genuinely won the said sum from their pool betting.
In counts three, the first and second defendants were accused of converting and concealing the origin and ownership of N1.9 million , knowing that same formed part of crime proceeds.
In counts four, the first and third defendants were said to have collaborated to conceal the origin of N254,000, knowing that same forms part of crime proceeds .
In counts five, the second defendant was said to have converted the sum of N210,000 received from the first defendant, being her share of the money from the betting company, knowing that same forms part of crime proceeds .
In counts six, the third defendant was said to have converted the sum of N10,000 received from the first defendant, being his share of the money from the betting company, knowing that same forms part of crime proceeds.
In counts seven, the first defendant was said to have caused the loss of N26.4 million to the Winner Golden Bet, by altering and suppressing data held in the computer network system of the company .
The offences contravenes the provisions of Sections 1(b), 8 to the Advanced Fee Fraud Act 2006, Sections 15, and 15(1) of the Money Laundering Act, 2012., and Section 14 of the Cyber Crimes Prohibition Act 2015.