The Group Managing Director for Aliqea Group UAE, Dr Muhammad Lamido, has been arrested and charged before the Court in Lagos State over alleged N105m fraud.
P.M.EXPRESS reports that it was the order of the Lagos Special Offences Court in Ikeja, presided by Justice Olubusola Okunuga, who handed down the order on Monday having been arraigned before the Court.
The defendant, Dr Lamido, was charged before the Court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), for the alleged offence having been found capable.
The Anti-graft Commission however, did not state how Dr Lamido committed the alleged fraud, which brought him before the EFCC and the Court.
The Prosecution Counsel for EFCC, R.A. Abdulrasheed, had arraigned the defendant and his company, Aliqea Group UAE, on a four-count charge of conspiracy to obtain by false pretence and money laundering.
Abdulrasheed told the Court that the alleged offences contravened the Criminal Code Act in Nigeria, which attracts several years of imprisonment.
However, the defendant pleaded not guilty.
The defence counsel, Peter Olomola, thereafter pleaded with the Court to allow the defendant to remain in EFCC custody after the prosecution had requested a trial date.
“We have responded to the bail options,” Olomola said.
However, Abdulrasheed objected to the defendant’s bail application and informed the Court that he had filed a counter-affidavit to oppose his bail on several grounds and urged the Court to deny the bail application and argued that the defendant might jump bail.
Justice Okunuga consequently ordered the defendant to be remanded in custody at the Kirikiri facility without an option of granting him bail and adjourned the matter to 13th December, 2023, to fix the trial date on the matter.