The judge ordered Oguike’s prison remand shortly after he was arraigned on Tuesday by the police Special Fraud Unit.
The three counts pressed against the defendant bordered on conspiracy, obtaining money by false pretences and advanced fee fraud.
The police, in the charge tendered in court by their prosecutor, CSP Effiong Asuquo, accused Oguike of obtaining N24m from one Ufomba Nnabugwu by falsely representing that he would deliver a property in the Ijegun Egba area of Lagos to the victim.
Oguike was also accused of making false loan facility documents in favour of himself, using the name of one Edwin Obele Ezeakachukwu and a property in the Ijegun Egba area of Lagos as collateral to the detriment of the victim.
The police alleged that he committed the offences sometime in 2014 contrary to the provisions of Section 8(a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006.
The prosecutor said Oguike is liable to punishment under Section 1(1)(a)(3) of the same Act as well as Section 1(2)(c) of the Miscellaneous Offences Act Cap. M17 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.
Oguike, however, pleaded not guilty to the three charges following which the prosecutor urged the court to make an order remanding him in the prison custody and also sought a day for commencement of trial.
The defence counsel, John Itodo, however, made an oral application to the judge to admit his client to bail, saying the matter, which had been on for about two years, was only just withdrawn from the magistrate court and brought to the Federal High Court on Tuesday morning.
“We were at the magistrate court this morning for continuation of hearing when the prosecutor said they were withdrawing the case to refile at the Federal High Court. When we got outside, he just said we should proceed to the Federal High Court right away, and we didn’t have any objection about that,” Itodo said.
He pointed Justice Anka’s attention to the fact that the accused had been on bail before the magistrate, adding that he also did not default when he was earlier granted an administrative bail by the police.
In response, however, Asuquo said he was opposed to the oral bail application and urged the judge to order the defendant to file a proper motion for bail.
In his ruling, Justice Anka directed the accused to file his application for bail while the defence lawyer indicated that he would bring same to court on Wednesday.
While adjourning till October 6, 2016 for trial, Justice Anka ordered that Oguike should be remanded in the prison custody pending the determination of his bail application on Wednesday. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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