The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Lagos Zonal Directorate 1, on Monday, arraigned two individuals and a company over an alleged attempt to defraud an old generation bank of Nigeria of €49,000,000.
The defendants—Abel Egerton Sokari, Nkiruka Chukwuma, and Zakah Global Investment Limited, were brought before Justice Mojisola Dada of the Special Offences Court in Ikeja, Lagos, on a six-count charge bordering on obtaining by false pretence, forgery, and possession of fraudulent documents.
According to the EFCC, the defendants, alongside four others currently at large, Cheryl Austin Adanti, Husain Abid, Shazad Muhammed, and Ismail Adil, attempted to fraudulently obtain €49 million from First Bank by claiming the funds had been transferred from Bayan Investment Bank and Hedge Fund Statutory Trust into an account belonging to Zakah Global Investment Limited.
In another count, Sokari and Chukwuma were accused of being in possession of a forged document purportedly originating from the law office of Steven H. Sado, P.C., claimed to be a lead attorney for former U.S. President Donald Trump.
The EFCC maintained that the document, allegedly dated April 2024, was known by the defendants to be false.
All defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges when read to them in court.
Following the plea, EFCC counsel H.U. Kofarnaisa applied for a trial date and urged the court to remand the defendants in custody pending the commencement of trial.
However, defence counsels Clement Onwenwnor, SAN, and Laolu Owolabi, SAN, representing Sokari and Chukwuma respectively, moved bail applications on behalf of their clients and requested the court to grant bail on liberal terms.
They also pledged to take custody of the defendants until their bail conditions were perfected.
Justice Dada granted bail to both defendants in the sum of N500,000 each, with one surety in like sum.
She ordered that they be temporarily released to their counsel, with a directive that bail conditions must be fulfilled within one month.
The case has been adjourned to October 29, 2025, for the commencement of trial.
