N950m fraud: Court overrules Abubakar, his company, over attempt to stop trial
By Jude-Ken Ojinnaka
An attempt by the defence team of a suspected fraudster, Alhaji Usman Abubakar and his company, Young Alhaji Foundation, to stop the continuation of their trial for an alleged N950 million fraud was on Tuesday overruled by Justice Mojisola Dada of a Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja division of Lagos State High Court.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), arraigned Alhaji Usman Abubakar alongside Young Alhaji Foundation on a five-count charge bordering on obtaining money by false pretence and stealing to the tune of N950 million.
At the resumption of the trial on Tuesday counsel for the second defendant, G.C. Ugwunweze, informed the court of his application challenging the jurisdiction of the court to entertain the matter.
Responding, EFCC Counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, (SAN), who acknowledged service on the prosecution in the courtroom by 9.42 am, urged the court to discountenance it.
“My submission is that this application cannot truncate the hearing of this case, we have left the primitive age where such objections affect trials,” he argued.
In the same vein, the first defendant’s counsel, Olatubosun Olanipekun (SAN), had also earlier in the course of proceedings raised much dust that documents given to the defence by the prosecution had no evidence of payment as part of procedures for certification of public documents, despite arguments that the EFCC as a government agency could not pay itself for certifying its documents.
After several arguments from both parties, the prosecution obliged him original copies in open court, as ordered by the court, for him to cross-examine the lead witness.
The witness, Adeniyi Oyewole, Managing Director of Ano Farms Limited, had last adjourned date on May 2, 2023, while being led in evidence by counsel for the EFCC, Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN), testifying as the first prosecution witness, narrated how his paths crossed that of the defendant when he was in search of foreign exchange “to facilitate importation”.
He had testified that he got to know Abubakar, through one Dr. Abu Fawaz, who lives in Ghana, and that he transferred the N950 million to the bank account of the Young Alhaji Foundation, which was forwarded to him by Fawaz.
At Tuesday’s proceeding, under cross-examination by Olanipekun, he again reaffirmed his testimony that Fawaz linked him up with the defendant and that he thereafter transferred the money to him.
During cross-examination, he asserted that the said account belonged to Young Alhaji Foundation.
He testified that he also traveled to Ghana to meet Fawaz one-on-one.
He added that when the dollar equivalent was not forthcoming, Fawaz told him that Young Alhaji had been instructed to return the funds.
“This I communicated to Young Alhaji over the phone, and to prove that I was in Ghana, I snapped and sent my boarding pass to him via WhatsApp,” he said.
He again asserted under cross-examination, that Alhaji Usman told him that he was “expecting the money as debt owed him by an organization in Australia, that they owed him $12 million for a transaction he did in 2019, and that the balance was going to be paid to him in cash in Guinea Conakry where he has a goldmine.
According to him, Abubakar was angered about the lien placed on his account.
Subsequently, the second defendant’s counsel prayed for an adjournment to enable him get familiar with the documents tendered to enable him cross-examine the witness.
The prayer was granted and the court adjourned till June 19, 2023.