A Federal High Court in Lagos, presided over by Justice Ibrahim Kala, granted bail on Tuesday to businessman Lanre Smith, who stands accused of fraud involving N10 million. The bail amount was set at N30 million with two sureties.
Smith’s defense lawyer, Akin Apara, argued for a lenient bail, asserting that his client remained innocent until proven guilty. Justice Kala agreed with this argument and granted bail, upholding the presumption of innocence principle.
Kala said one of the sureties must be a Grade Level 14 staff at a government establishment and the second, must be a landed property owner within the court’s jurisdiction.
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He also ordered that Smith should submit his passport with the court’s deputy chief registrar.
However, after granting the defendant bail, trial commenced and the prosecution counsel, Mike Enejere, called the first witness, Stephen Ogunlola, an operative of Interpol Section of Force CID Annex, Alagbon.
Ogunlola told the court that after the conclusion of investigation, findings emerged and that the nominal complainant and the defendant were old team mates from the defunct Island Football Club.
He said the defendant had approached the complainant for a foreign transaction, and that the complainant availed his Well Fargo Account in the US for the transfer of the forex funds.
The witness said, “That the bone of contention from our investigation was the transaction of $26,000 which the account of the nominal complainant is under investigation by the authority in US.”
The police prosecutor, Mr Mike Enejere, told the court that the defendant and others at large had sometime in August 2016, conspired among themselves and conducted a financial transaction which involved proceeds of unlawful activity.
However, the defendant, who is the founder of Grocedy Limited, pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The case has been adjourned till March 24, for continuation of trial.
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