Police file amended charge against wonder bank operators

 The Police Special Fraud Unit on Thursday filed an amended N9.8 billion fraud charge against Fortune Etaba and Godwin Nwaiche, before a Federal High Court in Lagos. The two men are standing trial alongside their company, Establishment House Ltd., one of the ?wonder banks?,



The Prosecutor, Mr Effiong Asuquo, informed the court of the amended three-count charge when the case was mentioned on Thursday.

He said that the amendment was to properly reflect the names of the accused and the company.

Asuquo prayed the court to allow the reading of the charge to the accused.

However, the Defence Counsel, Mr Kunle Oyeleye, objected, arguing that the amended charge sheet had just been served on him, and that he needed time to study it.

Justice Ibrahim Buba adjourned the case to Jan. 21 to enable the defence counsel to study the charge.

The accused were first arraigned in 2010 on a 300-count charge of fraudulently obtaining large sums of money from various individuals.

The case, however, suffered some setbacks due to the absence of the then trial judge, Justice Mohammed Liman, who was assigned to an Election Petition Tribunal.

The case was transferred to Justice Buba in 2011, after which the accused were re-arraigned.

The second accused (Nwaichie) had pleaded guilty to the charge, while the first accused (Etaba) pleaded not guilty.

Justice Buba granted bail to the first accused, but refused to convict the second accused after reviewing the case due to a conflict in his confessions.

The second accused had pleaded guilty to the charge, but said that the amount of money he fraudulently obtained was less than the sum reflected in the charge.

The judge therefore ordered that he should be remanded at the Kirikiri Prisons.

After this, the case suffered some adjournments.

In the charge, the SFU said that the accused committed the offences from June, 2009 to December, 2009 in Lagos.

It said that the accused obtained various sums of money totaling N9.8 billion from people, especially businessmen at the Alaba International Market, Ojo, Lagos.

He said the accused falsely represented to the individuals that they would get 50 per cent of their deposits after 21 days.

According to the prosecutor, the accused could not repay the deposited sum or pay the multiplied sum.

He said that the offences contravened the provisions of Sections 1 (1) (a), 8 and 2 of the Advanced Fee Fraud and other Fraud-Related Offences Act, 2004