The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has re-arraigned Chukudubeem Ezenwa, a businessman from Ilorin, and his accomplice, Adeleke Damilola, on Monday, May 6, 2024, on a five-count charge of cybercrime, retention of proceeds of crime, and fraud totaling $10,000.
The defendants were initially arraigned on September 23, 2021, before Justice Muhammed Sani, but the case was reassigned to Justice Evelyn Anyadike due to the redeployment of the former trial judge.
The EFCC alleges that the defendants conspired to obtain $10,000 from a credit card that did not belong to them using a cash App software device between August and November 2020.
The defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges, and the EFCC’s counsel, Innocent Mbachie, called the first prosecution witness, Olamide Sadiq, a Chief Superintendent of the EFCC, to testify against the defendants.
Sadiq narrated how the defendants were arrested and how investigations revealed their complicity in the fraudulent activities. He also testified that Damilola confessed to using a cash app application introduced by Ezenwa to make illegal withdrawals and paid N3 million into Ezenwa’s Zenith Bank account.
The trial was adjourned until Tuesday, May 7, 2024, for a trial-within-trial to determine the voluntariness of the defendants’ statements, as their counsel alleged that they were coerced into writing the statements under duress.
