A Special Offences Court, Ikeja Lagos has fixed February 13, 2026 to determine the fate of Convicted fraudster, Emmanuel Nwude and two lawyers, Emmanuel Ilechukwu and Rowland Kalu in respect of the charge against the three defendants by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC over alleged offences of fraud and tampering with a property that had been forfeited by a court order.
Justice Mojisola Dada of the Special Offences Court, Ikeja fixed the judgement day after listening to the oral submissions of the prosecution and defence counsel.
Nwude was alleged to have conspired with two others to tamper with a property that had been forfeited by a court order.
While giving oral submissions, the Defence Counsel, Chuks Nwanchukwu, Mrs. F.R.A Williams and E. Nwokolo prayed the court to discharge and acquit the first to third defendants respectively of the fifteen-count charge bordering on forgery and dealing in forfeited property.
But the Prosecution Counsel to the Economic and Financial Crimes, EFCC, Nnaemeka Omewa, urged the court to convict all defendants for attempting to forge the documents of the property then High Court judge, Justice Joseph Olubunmi Oyewole had ordered Nwude to forfeit to his victims, particularly a Power of Attorney of a forfeited property to one Mankris Ventures Limited.
Recall that Nwude was convicted by a Lagos State High Court in 2005 for impersonating Paul Ogwuma, a governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, who had served from October 1, 1993 to May 29, 1999 in order to defraud a Brazilian bank.
The bank, Banco Noroeste, was defrauded of $242million between 1995 and 1998.
As at the time of the incident, it was the third largest bank fraud in history, resulting in the collapse of Banco Noroeste in 2001.
Nwude was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment for the fraud in 2005 by Justice Oyewole.
His conviction was the first major conviction for the then newly established EFCC.
