Ajudua wants Oyewole disqualified in $1.69m fraud trial

LAGOS socialite and lawyer, Fred Ajudua, who was charged with alleged $1.69 million fraud, on Monday sought the disqualification of the trial judge, Justice Olubunmi Oyewole, of an Ikeja High Court, Lagos, from handling the case.

  Charged alongside Charles Orie by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for allegedly defrauding two Dutch businessmen, Remy Cina and Pierre Vijgen, Ajudua was earlier denied bail by Oyewole.

  The judge had, in a ruling on Ajudua’s bail application, ordered a day-to-day trial of the defendants following Ajudua’s alleged default of previous bail condition granted after his arraignment in 2003. 

  However, at the proposed commencement of the trial yesterday, Adujua’s counsel, Allens Agbaka, asked for an adjournment of proceedings pending the decision of the Lagos State Chief Judge, Ayodele Philips, on the petition seeking the transfer of trial to another judge.

  In a motion on notice dated July 4 and brought pursuant to Section 36 of the Constitution and Section 56(1) and (2)(A)&(B) of the High Court Laws of Lagos State, Agbaka sought an order disqualifying the judge from the matter in the interest of justice.

  He hinged his application on the ground that the judge’s remark during his ruling on June 25, 2013, in which he allegedly accused his client of tampering with the prosecution’s witness, was prejudicial to fair hearing in the trial.

  According to the motion supported by a six-paragraph affidavit deposed to by one Bridget Akhagbe, the defence averred that the presiding judge, in making those remarks, had given cause to reasonable fear and apprehension that Ajudua had been found guilty even before the conclusion of the trial.

  He added that the mere mention of the judge’s name in a previous petition written by Maj.-Gen. Ishaya Bamaiyi (rtd) to the EFCC has a ripple effect on the trial of his client.

  In the said petition, Bamaiyi allegedly accused Ajudua of fraudulently obtaining millions of dollars from him while they were together in Kirikiri Prisons. The said money was allegedly paid when Ajudua allegedly convinced Bamaiyi that he would help influence Justice Oyewole during the latter’s trial.

  And “having the name of the judge in the hand-written petition, his lordship is likely going to be listed as one of the witnesses,” Agbaka said. 

  However, the EFCC counsel, Wemimo Ogunde (SAN), asked for more time to respond to the application, and the trial judge adjourned till September 24 for hearing of the application.

  Ajudua, who was arraigned with Orie on six-count charge since 2003, had earlier urged the court to quash the charge. In a motion on notice dated June 7, 2013, and filed through his counsel, Agbaka, Ajudua argued that since the complainant has withdrawn the case and filed an affidavit before the court to this purpose, the court should quash the charge.

  Nevertheless, Ogunde opposed it, urging the court to discountenance the application because it is not known to law for a victim to come to court to file an affidavit of discontinuance on which the defence would predicate the application for charges to be quashed.

  Justice Oyewole, however, dismissed the application for lacking in merit. In his ruling yesterday, he said the applicant was not responsible for the prosecution of the case and, therefore, cannot terminate it.