Alleged forgery: Nwude approaches A’Court for bail

An alleged fraud kingpin, Emmanuel Nwude, has appealed the ruling of the Lagos State Special Offences Court in Ikeja which denied him bail. Nwude, alongside two lawyers – Emmanuel Ilechukwu and Roland Kalu – were arraigned on March 2, 2018 before Justice Mojisola Dada by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. They were accused of forging some documents and tampering with a landed property under a court order. According to the EFCC, the property located at Plot Y, Mobolaji Johnson Street, Oregun, Alausa, Lagos, had already been ordered to be forfeited to victims of a crime by Nwude. The anti-graft agency, however, alleged that Nwude, in connivance with the two lawyers, forged a power of attorney to transfer the property to one Mankris Ventures Ltd. Counsel for the EFCC, Nnaemeka Omenwa, explained to the court that the defendants committed the alleged crime January 12, 2011. The three defendants, however, pleaded not guilty to the 15 charges slammed against them. But while the two lawyers were granted bail, Justice Dada refused Nwude’s bail application, holding that he was serving a jail term. Displeased, however, Nwude, through his lawyer, Chief Emeka Okpoko (SAN), approached the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, challenging Justice Dada’s refusal to grant him bail. In the notice of appeal, Okpoko contended that, “The trial court failed to see that the applicant/appellant is not serving any prison term at all. The learned trial court did not appreciate that it is under judicial duty to concentrate on the fact and evidence presented before the court by the parties. “The court failed to see the fact that there is no evidence at all from all the parties suggesting that the applicant is currently serving any prison term. That the court failed to act on the evidence placed before it.”]]>