On Monday, March 27, 2023, Justice Mojisola Dada of the Special Offenses Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos, found Adanu Blessing Ajumi guilty of the charge of N47 million fraud.
Adanu was charged with two counts relating to obtaining money by false pretense, contrary to Sections 1(1) and 1(3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006, and stealing, contrary to Sections 278 and 285 of the Criminal Law of Lagos 2011. She is accused of operating under the name and style of Emerald Multipurpose Cooperative Society to defraud her victims in a purported agribusiness scheme.
According to one of the counts, Adanu Blessing Ajumi “dishonestly stole and converted to your own use a cumulative sum of N47,575,000 (Forty-seven Million Five Hundred and Seventy-five Thousand Naira) from Mrs. Favour Bukola Nnamani between the 30th day of November 2018 and the 11th day of January 2019 at Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court.”
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When she was arraigned on December 19, 2019, she entered a “not guilty” plea to the charges, which resulted in her trial beginning on September 14, 2020.
In the course of the trial, the prosecution counsel, S.O. Daji, called three witnesses through whom several documentary evidence were tendered and admitted by the court against her.
The defence counsel, Peter Ola, called four witnesses, including the defendant who testified as the fourth witness.
However, the defendant stopped appearing in court upon the closure of her defence on June 30, 2022.
In light of this, Daji asked the court to revoke the defendant’s bail and permit the trial to proceed in absentia during the proceedings on November 3, 2022.
Her attorney, O. Ajanaku, did not raise any objections in court on November 3, 2022.
Justice Dada, therefore, revoked the bail earlier granted the defendant and further issued a bench warrant for her arrest.
Additionally, the judge mandated that the EFCC list her as wanted.
Adanu was once again absent on December 2, 2022, when the final addresses were supposed to be adopted by both parties. Daji informed the court that desperate efforts were still being made to get her arrested.
Daji had urged the court to continue with the adoption of the final written addresses by citing Section 14(4) of the Criminal Law of Lagos Society.
Justice Dada adjourned for judgment after both parties adopted their final written addresses.
Justice Dada rejected the defense’s claim that the charges stemmed from “contractual disputes that are purely civil in nature” in his ruling today.
The trial judge further declared that the prosecution had successfully established all necessary elements of obtaining by false pretense and stealing based on the evidence presented in court, including the defendant’s statements made during questioning.
The trial judge further noted that, as argued by the prosecution, most economic and financial crimes arise from transactions that have a semblance of contractual transactions, but along the line, “a lot of factors come in to derail the smooth sail, when the heart of man begins to dialogue with the devil to outsmart another person and he succumbs to it.”
The court further noted that her oral testimony in court regarding how flooding and attacks by Fulani herdsmen affected the agribusiness was “an after-thought.”
According to the judge, “She wanted to be living large at other people’s expense without considering the cost.
The truth is that the defendant cannot evade justice, despite the fact that she appears to have fled after jumping the bail that this court kindly granted her.
The evidence before the court clearly demonstrates that the case against the defendant has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt on the two counts of obtaining the sum of N47, 575, 000 based on the aforementioned.
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Consequently, Justice Dada declared the defendant guilty as charged on the two counts.
However, her punishment was postponed in accordance with Sections 321 and 352 (5) of the 2015 version of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJL) and Section 278 (1) of the ACJL 2015, “until she is apprehended and brought before this court.”
