Judge orders Otudeko to appear in court for ‘N30bn fraud’ trial

Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke of the federal high court in Lagos has ordered Oba Otudeko to take a plea in the charges filed against him.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had filed a 13-count charge against Otudeko and three others over an alleged N30 billion loan fraud.

At the hearing of the matter on Monday, the judge said Otudeko must be arraigned before an application challenging the court’s jurisdiction on the case can be decided.

“Whatsoever filed by defendant or defendants in a criminal charge can be taken before plea,” he said.

“This court is also bound by the cited decisions. So I agree with the prosecution that based on the current state of the law, no application by the defendant in the criminal matter can be taken or determined by the court before arraignment.”

The judge subsequently adjourned the case to May 8.

THE CHARGES

In August 2024, Adesuwa Ezenwa, a former relationship manager at First Bank, told the national industrial court that loans worth billions of naira were transferred to companies related to Otudeko even though they were granted in the name of other firms.

The EFCC would later charge Otudeko and the other defendants for alleged fraud in January 2025.

The three other defendants in the matter are Stephen Olabisi Onasanya, a former group managing director of FBN; Soji Akintayo, an ex-board member of Honeywell Flour Mills plc; and Anchorage Limited, a company linked to Otudeko.

They were accused of obtaining tranches of loans—N12.3 billion, N5.2 billion, N6.2 billion, N6.1 billion, and N1.5 billion—from First Bank under the pretence that the funds were obtained by some firms.

The anti-graft agency said the credit facilities were obtained between 2013 and 2014.

The EFCC said there will be 12 witnesses for the trial.

The witnesses include three EFCC investigators and representatives of First Bank, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Stallion Nigeria, and V-tech Dynamics Limited.