Court Case Over N4.29bn Forex Fraud Delayed Again as Defendants Fail to Show

The planned arraignment of United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc and four others over an alleged N4.29 billion forex fraud was stalled again on Wednesday at the Lagos State Special Offences Court in Ikeja. None of the defendants showed up in court.

This is the second time the defendants missed court for their trial to start. The first time was in April 2025 when the case could not go ahead. There were issues over service and nobody showed up in the dock.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is prosecuting the case before Judge Rahman Oshodi. They have four charges against the defendants. These include forex racketeering, conspiracy, hiding the proceeds of illegal activities, keeping criminal proceeds, and money laundering.

The accused are United Bank for Africa (UBA), Muyiwa Akinyemi, Amangbo Eziashi Stephen, Geeos Global Service Limited, and Fedat Global Limited.

One of the charges claims that between 14 September 2022 and 20 March 2023 in Lagos, the defendants conspired to sell foreign exchange at rates higher than those set by the Central Bank of Nigeria. Another charge says that in September 2022, they hid N4.3 billion in a UBA account, which supposedly came from illegal activities.

When the case was called, EFCC lawyer T. J. Banjo announced that he was there for the prosecution. Adewale Kamourudeen appeared for the first three defendants, while I. S. Hassan represented the fourth defendant. There was no lawyer for the fifth defendant.

During the proceedings, Mr Banjo told the court that the matter was set for a report on service and arraignment. He explained to the judge that all defendants had received the charge and other documents. He added that affidavits of service had already been filed.

But the absence of the defendants upset the prosecution. They said it was another attempt to delay starting the trial. Mr Banjo also mentioned that they tried to arrest the second and third defendants after they jumped the administrative bail earlier granted by the commission.

However, Mr Kamourudeen told the court that his clients did not get any charge or hearing notice. He said they only learned about the case through news reports.

“The first, second and third defendants have not been served with the information or the hearing notice for today’s proceedings or the previous adjourned date. We found out about it through newspaper reports. That is why we are here,” he said.

He asked the court to let him see the case file to check the proof of service the prosecution was relying on. But Mr Banjo insisted that service had been done through UBA’s compliance officer, Chima Okugbo. He noted that Okugbo received the court documents for the bank and two of its officials, Messrs Akinyemi and Stephen.

Mr Banjo added that this same officer had also interacted with investigators during the EFCC’s inquiry into the case. When Mr Oshodi asked the defence lawyer if he was ready to accept service in court for his clients, Mr Kamourudeen said he could not do that because he had no instructions.

With no agreement on service and no defendants present to make their plea, Mr Oshodi postponed the case until 16 June for a report on service, arraignment, and further proceedings.