Justice Modupe Nicol-Clay of the Lagos State High Court in
Igbosere on Monday threatened to order the arrest of a surety,
Nurudeen Ekundayo if he refuses to appear in court to explain his
failure to produce a British man, Syed Mohammed Kamran, facing
N10,320,000 fraud charge.
Justice Nicol-Clay, who made the threat after Ekundayo failed to
attend court, also renewed an order she gave on January 21
directing him to either produce Kamran or forfeit his bail bond or
be ready to serve a jail term.
The British was arraigned before Magistrate Abimbola Komolafe of
a Lagos State Chief Magistrates’ Court sitting in Ogba area of the
state by the police in 2015 for allegedly defrauding 11 Nigerians
of about N120 million.
He allegedly obtained supplies of diesel but failed to pay for
the products.
He pleaded not guilty.
The Briton spent several months in Kirikiri Prison custody
following his failure to meet bail.
But soon after he met his bail bond and allegedly absconded.
According to the prosecution, Kamran, who relocated to Nigeria
from Essex, United Kingdom, was later re-arrested by the Special
Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Lagos State Police Command, at the
Murtala Muhammed International Airport en route the UK.
He was then re-arraigned before Justice Nicol-Clay in 2016 on a
two-count charge of conspiracy and obtaining the sum of N10,320,000
by false pretence from a traditional ruler in Imo State, H.H Ubochi
C. Ubochi.
The prosecution said the defendant committed the fraud through
“an elaborate diesel Local Purchase Order (LPO) scam.”
Kamran pleaded not guilty, following which he was again granted
bail.
But soon after he fulfilled his bail bond, Kamran refused to
attend court, the development prompted the judge to summon Ekundayo
to show cause.
At the resumed hearing of the case on Monday, the Lagos State
prosecutor, Mrs. Bisayo Apata urged the court to issue a bench
warrant for the arrest of the surety for failing to obey the
court’s summons.
She said, “The defendant in the main case is a foreigner who was
granted bail and ever since absconded, jumped bail. We have
information that he has gone abroad.
“The surety was brought to explain the defendant’s absence. The
court directed him to produce the defendant. He isn’t here; there
is no letter before the court. Instead, he sent his son.
‘’I see it as a sign of disrespect to the court. The complainant
is always here, he’s a traditional ruler and he has to travel from
the East each time the matter comes up. So, I see no reason why the
surety cannot be here,” the prosecutor argued.
This application was, however, opposed to by Ekundayo’s counsel,
Mrs O. Adeniyi, who pleaded for more time for her client to appear
in court, because he is gravely ill.
She further told the court that, “This matter escalated the
surety’s blood pressure. He and the foreigner met in a club and
became good friends.”
The lawyer also tendered a medical report from a general
hospital on her client’s behalf.
In a bench ruling, Justice Nicol-Clay held, “He has three
options: produce the defendant, forfeit his bail bond or be ready
to serve his time. The medical report says he is hypertensive. That
shouldn’t stop him from appearing.”
The judge then adjourned the matter to June 24 to enable the
surety appear in court
Read more court-threatens-to-order-arrest-of-surety-over-britons-disappearance/