An alleged fraudster and fake
spiritualist, Innocent Chukwu, alias Ohamadike was denied bail recently by
an Ikeja High Court for defrauding a business woman, Chief Vivian Amadife the
sum of N97 million and a property worth N35m.
Ohamadike and his alleged partner in
crime, Mrs. Obiageli Anachebe alias Odiuko, were first
arraigned before Justice Oluwatoyin Ipaye of the Ikeja High
Court, Lagos, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)
for allegedly defrauding their victim of the huge sum of money and
property under the guise of performing spiritual cleansing on her and
her family.
Both suspects were arraigned on
five count charge.
When the matter came up again for
second hearing on October 14, Justice Ipaye refused to grant the bail
application of Ohamadike, the first accused.
Ohamadike, the notorious founder of
Esoteric World Discovery Limited, was remanded at the Kirikiri Prisons, pending
when the case comes up again on October 28.
Odiuko, whom the prosecution counsel
accused of jumping bail, forging and obtaining another international passport,
after the EFCC confiscated her first travelling document, was granted bail with
the sum of N2.5m.
The court also told Anachebe, the
owner of Rancco Water, Enugu to provide two sureties in like sum, who are also
resident in Lagos and must show evidence of tax payments in the last three
years.
A mild drama ensued in the court
premises when the female and another armed male warder attached to Obiageli
Anachebe aka Odiuko, refused some journalists covering the case from taking
photographs of the suspect.
All efforts to get her picture and
that of Ohamadike proved abortive as the tough talking warders threatened to
deal decisively with any journalist who dares take their photographs without a
written permission from the top echelon of the Nigerian Prison Services.
Obiageli Anachebe, who wore a POP on
her neck, was brought to the court in a mini Prison bus looking distraught and
embattled.
While Ohamadike, came in a separate
Prison coaster bus and was kept at the holding cell alongside Anachebe, prior
to the commencement of their trial.
According to the
anti-graft agency, Chukwu, alias Dr. Ohamadike, and Anachebe alias
Odiuko, first collected N50million from the businesswoman, Mrs. Vivian Amadife,
with the promise that the money would be used to solve all her
problems spiritually, a claim the prosecution said the accused knew
was false.
The prosecution said the
accused committed the offence between October and December 2013,
in Lagos.
According to the charge suit number
ID/1332c/2015, it stated that the accused conspired to ‘obtain money
by false pretences, stealing by fraudulent conversion and
concealment of deed.
The offences, according to the
Commission, contravened Section 8(a) and 1(3) of the Advanced Fee
Fraud and Other Related Offences Act No. 14 of 2006 and Sections
285(9)(c) and 288 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.
The charge further alleged that
Chukwu, on ‘or about February 14, 2014, dishonestly converted another
sum of N16.9 million property of Amadife and Pamela Ihediwa of
Bluebeam Capital Ltd, Lagos.
He was accused to have
‘obtained the sum by claiming to have for sale, a United States
dollar equivalent of the N16.9m which representation he knew to be
false and dishonest.
It added that between
October and December 2013, Chukwu also fraudulently
and dishonestly obtained and concealed the title documents to
a building valued at N35 million at No. 4, Nteje Street, New
Haven, Enugu, property of Amadife.
The matter was adjourned till
October 28, for full trial of the accused to start.
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