Lawyer Remanded Over Attempts To Use Forged Documents To Secure Loan From Bank Of Industry

MICHAEL AKINOLA 

A Lagos-based legal practitioner, Chinwe Onuoha, and a company, Eihcrim Nigeria Limited, have been arraigned before the Court for allegedly presenting a fake document to defraud the Bank of Industry.

P.M.EXPRESS reports that Barr. Onuoha was arraigned before an Ikeja High Court on a 12-count charge bordering on forgery, fraud, conspiracy, and altering documents under the Criminal Laws Laws of the State.

However, the defendants pleaded not guilty.

The Prosecutor, Emmanuel Jackson, urged the Court to remand the defendant at a correctional facility pending the conclusion of the case and accelerated hearing of the matter.

But the defence Counsel, Ikechukwu Chiaha, urged the Court to hear the defendants’ bail application, adding that he needed time to prepare his case.

The Presiding Judge, Justice Hakeem Oshodi, ordered that the defendant be remanded at a correctional facility pending the hearing of the bail application.

The matter was adjourned till 25th February, 2025, for the hearing of the application.

The prosecutor had earlier told the Court that the defendants and others at large committed the offences  sometime in 2020 within the jurisdiction of the court.

According to him, the defendants made a false document, titled: “The Lease Agreement” dated February 12, 2018.
He said the defendants submitted the document to the Bank of Industry with the intent that it be acted upon as genuine by the bank to the prejudice of one Ngozi Braide.

The Prosecutor, Jackson, also alleged that the forged document was purportedly submitted to the Bank of Industry as part of a scheme to fraudulently secure a loan to the detriment of the complainant.

The prosecutor said the alleged offences contravened Sections 516, 465 and 467 of the Criminal Code Cap. C38, Laws of Federation of Nigeria, 2004, which attracts several years of imprisonment if found guilty before the Court.