Court remands Rivers company MD over alleged N800m fraud

Mr Nwankwo Orieagu and 493 others had urged the court, presided over by Justice H. Oshoma, to compel the accused to refund their money after failing to allocate the plots of land promised them.

Nwogu, who is standing trial on 494 counts borering on advance fee fraud, did not take his plea following a notification by his counsel, Chika Agbaeze, that he had not been served with the relevant documents about the case.

Agbaeze cited Section 379 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, which requires that all relevant documents must be served on the defendant for plea to be taken.

Justice Oshoma directed that all the relevant documents be served on the defence counsel before any plea would be taken and ordered the defendant to be remanded in a correctional facility before adjourning the matter till January 17, 2020.

Speaking with journalists outside the courtroom, Agbaeze said the prosecuting counsel breached Section 379 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, which necessitated the adjournment of the matter.

“Section 379 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, requires that when you are being arraigned in court, all relevant documents ought to be served on the defendant, and these documents are not complete, hence we notified the court. That was why the matter was adjourned to a date on which the plea will be taken,” Agbaeze stated.

However, the prosecuting counsel, Sokari Egop, gave reason for his failure to serve all the relevant documents on the defendant, adding that they would be served in due course.

Egop said, “The matter today was actually for plea-taking; there were documents required by law for us to serve the defence counsel, which we have placed in an envelope. But due to the volume of the documents, we could not serve the defence counsel.

“We are going to serve him in due course. However, the court has remanded the defendant till January 2020 for plea-taking.”