to travel abroad for medical treatment.
Justice
Chuka Obiozor, a stand-in judge who presided over the hearing, said if there
were truly an emergency, Dudafa could have ensured that his application, filed
since May, was heard by Justice Mohammed Idris before he proceeded on vacation.
It was Justice Idris who ordered him to deposit the passport with the court as
part of the conditions of his bail.
Dudafa was
urging the court to order the release of his passport to enable him to travel
abroad to treat a spinal cord injury, which he allegedly sustained while being
detained in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Saharareporters reported that the former
aide, who is standing trial for fraud of N5.1bn, said he needed to urgently
travel abroad for a medical appointment, for which he wanted the court to order
the release of his passport.
His lawyer,
Kolawole Salami, said the medical appointment was earlier scheduled for July 18
and 19, 2017 but had to be rescheduled for July 28, as Dudafa had yet to obtain
access to the passport. He urged Justice
Obiozor to hear and grant the application, saying the health of his client was
at stake.
But Justice
Obiozor refused to entertain the application, saying he was not convinced that
there was truly any emergency in Dudafa’s case.
The judge
said he would not be the one to release Dudafa’s passport, and directed him to
wait till October 16, when Justice Idris, who had ordered Dudafa to deposit the
document, would have returned from vacation.
“Let him
reschedule to October; he can reschedule to October,” Justice Obiozor said in
declining Salami’s plea to hear the application.
The EFCC is
prosecuting Dudafa before Justice Idris on 23 counts of fraud and money
laundering. He is standing trial
alongside his ex-account officer at Heritage Bank, Joseph Iwuejo, who was said
to have aided him to perpetrate the alleged fraud.
The EFCC
alleges that between June 2013 and June 2015, Dudafa and Iwuejo, who also
claimed to be Taiwo Ebenezer and Olugbenga Isaiah, used different companies to
fraudulently launder various sums of money totaling N5.1bn.
It listed
some of the companies allegedly used by the accused persons in the transactions
as Seagate Property Development & Investment Limited; Avalon Global
Property Development Company Limited; Pluto Property and Investment Company
Limited; and Rotate Interlink Services Limited; Ibejige Services Limited;
DeJakes Fast Food & Restaurant Nigeria Limited; and Ebiwise Resources.
Dudafa and
Iwuejo have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
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