A businessman, Dr Jude Ndudi, has narrated before a Federal High Court in Lagos, how a former bank manager, Fidelis Egueke, plotted a kidnapping scheme, threatened to kill him and later defrauded him of over N100 million in a failed business deal.
Dr Ndudi made the scary revelation during the continuation of the ex-banker’s trial before Justice Alexander Owoeye, in a charge marked FHC/L/298c/2020, filed against him by the police.
The former bank manager is being tried before the court on alleged offences bordering on conspiracy, fraud, unlawful conversion, obtaining money by false pretence, unauthorised withdrawal and forgery.
While being led in evidence by the prosecutor, Barrister Morufu Ajani Animashaun, Dr Jude said he arrived in Lagos on 4th December, 2018, from the USA for a meeting and contacted the defendant to link him up with a businessman, Great Ogboru, regarding a proposed business loan transaction.
But the defendant kept changing the meeting venue under suspicious circumstances.
“I was first told by the defendant that Chief Ogboru had travelled to Delta State and that the meeting would be held in Asaba. When I arrived in Asaba the next day, the defendant told me Ogboru had left for Warri and wanted us to meet there”, Dr Jude said.
He told the court that he declined the request to travel to Warri for security reasons, and insisted the meeting should take place in Asaba, Lagos or Abuja.
The witness told the court that moments later, he received a call from Turner Ogboru informing him that the meeting would take place in Lagos, only to discover that Chief Ogboru had never left Lagos in the first place. He alleged that the defendant was sending him to Warri, where he is from, to be kidnapped for ransom.
On the alleged N100 million loan deal, the businessman told the court that on 7th December, 2018, the defendant took him to Chief Great Ogboru’s office in Ikoyi, where he was persuaded to provide a N100 million loan, saying that the money was needed for customs clearance of a shipment of frozen fish allegedly arriving at the port in Port Harcourt.
The witness told the court that a condition for the loan to Fiogret was to provide post-dated cheques as collateral in the amount of N110 million, and the defendant, whom he trusted, was to go to Port Harcourt to verify that the ship and the frozen fish are there before written authorisation and approval are given for the loan to be released to Fiogret.
The witness also told the court that the defendant assured him that he is in control of N1.7 billion of Chief Great Ogboru’s money in his bank and will be used as backup collateral for paying back the N110 million loan.
He also told the court that Fiogret issued six post-dated cheques as security for the loan, five valued at N20 million each and one valued at N10 million.
The businessman told the court that he asked the defendant, whom he described as an experienced banker with more than 10 years in the profession, to review the cheques before accepting them.
“And that the defendant examined each cheque and certified them as correct. He was also assured by the defendant that the cheques were valid and would be good when deposited because the defendant is in control of the N1.7 billion in his bank.
However, the witness said he later discovered that the ship carrying the fish and the cargo itself did not exist, while the N1.7 billion that the defendant claimed that he controlled and had in the defendant’s bank never existed as well.
“On the disputed deposits and bounced cheques, the businessman, who is the first prosecution witness (PW 1) told the court that the defendant was tasked with depositing the post-dated cheques when due since he resides in the United States, but the defendant repeatedly failed to do so despite multiple reminders.
He said months later, the defendant admitted that the five N20 million cheques were not valid. “I was stunned because he had already reviewed them earlier and confirmed they were legitimate,” the witness said.
The witness further disclosed that when the remaining N10 million cheque was eventually deposited on 14th October, 2019, it was dishonoured, saying the entire N110 million cheques were worthless and fraudulent.
He added that when he questioned the defendant about the development, he explained that the cheque was drawn from an operational account, but assured him that he still controlled N1.7 billion belonging to Ogboru in a bank account and would transfer the N110 million to his account the next day.
“Only to tell him the following day that the account had been restricted and that he could not transfer the money. “That was the moment I realised the person I trusted had defrauded me,” he said.
The prosecution witness told the court that he subsequently petitioned the police through the office of the Assistant Inspector General of Police at Alagbon in Lagos.
During cross-examination, Chief Nelson Imoh, the defendant’s lawyer, highlighted the family relationship between the witness and the defendant.
The businessman confirmed that the defendant is his brother-in-law by definition only, having married his younger sister, Blessing Uju Egueke, and that the marriage produced four children, but that the defendant has not exhibited the characteristics of a brother-in-law.
He, however, insisted the family relationship did not affect the facts of the case. Adding that his sister later filed for divorce after the defendant allegedly threatened to kill her and their children for agreeing to testify in the matter.
Further hearing in the matter has been adjourned to July 9.
