Justice Mojisola Dada of the Lagos State High Court, Ikeja, on Thursday, May 17, 2018, dismissed a bail application filed by a serial fraudster, Emmanuel Nwude.
Nwude alongside Emmanuel Ilechukwu and Rowland Kalu were arraigned on. March 2, 2018 on a 15-count charge bordering on forgery and dealing in forfeited property.
One of the count reads: “That you Emmanuel Nwude, Emmanuel Ilechukwu and Rowland Kalu, on or about 12th day of January 2011, at Lagos within the Ikeja Judicial Division, conspired to forge a Power of Attorney dated 12th day of January 2011, issued in the name of Mankris Venture Limited purporting that Mankris Venture Limited is the owner of Plot Y, Mobolaji Johnson Street, Oregun, Alausa, Lagos, whereas you knew that the property was forfeited to the victims of crime as restitution in the judgment delivered on 18th day of 2005 by Honourable Justice Joseph Oyewole in ID/92c/04- FRN vs. Emmanuel Nwude and Six Others and the victims subsequently sold the property to Rossab Industrial Design Limited and which Rossab Industrial Limited later assigned to G.C Nweze and Company Limited, thereby committing an offence contrary to Section 467(2)(m) of the Criminal Code Law Cap C17, Lagos State, 2003.”
The defendants pleaded not guilty to the charge preferred against them.
Both the second and the third defendants were granted bail.
However, the judge had adjourned to March 6, 2018 for hearing of the bail application of the first defendant.
At the March 6, 2018 sitting, counsel to the first defendant, Stephen Amallagoge, had brought before the court a summons for bail application on behalf of his client.
He had also prayed the court to grant Nwude bail pending the hearing and determination of the charge against him.
However, the prosecution counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, had urged the court not to grant the bail application.
Oyedepo, in a 10-paragraph counter-affidavit, had urged the court to dismiss the application on the grounds that the first defendant, Nwude, is not a first-time offender.