Chief Afe Babalola, Mr Adebayo Adenipekun
(SAN), yesterday told an Ikeja High Court
that the law firm never received payments
from a Lagos socialite, Fred Ajudua, to
represent a former Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-
Gen. Ishaya Bamaiyi.
Testifying at the trial of a court registrar,
Oluronke Rosolu, accused of aiding Ajudua
to defraud Bamaiyi of $330.000, Adenipekun
said he was the chamber’s head of
administration during the period of the said
transaction.
Led in evidence by the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)
counsel, Mr Seidu Atteh, the senior advocate
pointed out that Ajudua did not brief the law
firm of Chief Afe Babalola to represent
Bamaiyi at any time.
Fred Ajudua
“That is not correct. We did not receive any
legal fee from Ajudua in respect of the
general. We were never briefed to represent
Bamaiyi and we did not receive any money
from Ajudua,” he added.
After listening to his brief testimony, the
presiding judge, Justice Lateef Lawal-
Akapo, adjourned the matter till today for
continuation of trial.
Rosulu, a former registrar to Justice Joseph
Oyewole, was arraigned by the EFCC on a
two-count charge of conspiracy to obtain
money by false pretences and obtaining
money by false pretences.
According to EFCC, Ajudua obtained the
money from Bamaiyi by claiming that it
represented the professional fees charged by
Chief Afe Babalola (SAN) to handle his case.
The anti-graft agency alleged that the court
registrar (Rosulu) helped Ajudua to siphon
the money from Bamaiyi between November
2004 and June 2005 while both of them were
being remanded at Kirikiri Prison for
separate offences.
No comments:
Post a Comment