Kelly Nwogu, an estate developer, was remanded on Friday by the Federal High Court in Lagos for allegedly defrauding a church of N65 million.
The Police Special Fraud Unit has filed three charges against the defendant: conspiracy, obtaining under false pretense, and fraudulent conversion.
Nwogu was charged in court alongside Livelihood Homes Limited, his business, and other suspects who are still at large.
The defendants and other people who are still at large committed the crimes this year, according to the prosecutor, Emmanuel Jackson, who testified in court.
Jackson testified in court that the estate developer, his business, and other individuals who are still at large defrauded a church in the Ojodu neighborhood of Lagos State out of N65 million by making false claims that they had land for sale in the Ewekoro Local Government Area of Ogun State and Agbara, Badagry Expressway in Lagos.
He claimed that following his receipt of funds from the church, the defendant did not distribute the promised land and did not pay back the church.
He claimed that the violations of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, No. 14 of 2006, Sections 8(a), 1(1)(8), and Section 1(3), as well as Section 15(2)(b) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011, as amended in 2012, were committed.
Nwogu, on the other hand, entered a not guilty plea.
The prosecution requested a trial date after the defendant entered a plea of not guilty and urged the court to remand the defendant in the care of the Nigerian Correctional Centre until the allegations against him were resolved.
However, the defendant’s attorney, Bernard Omang, asked the court to grant his client the most lenient bail conditions possible.
The court denied his request on the grounds that there was an improper application supporting it.
Thus, Justice Lifu directed that the defendant be remanded at the Ikoyi Custodial Center and continued the case until the start of the trial on June 14.
