NewStats: 3,265,441 , 8,186,755 topics. Date: Sunday, 15 June 2025 at 12:25 AM 2k45w

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested Fred Ajudua, a Lagos-based socialite and businessman, in connection with an alleged $1.43 million fraud.

The arrest took place in Abuja on Tuesday, following a Supreme Court order issued on Friday, 5 May 2025, which revoked his bail and directed that he be remanded in the Correctional Service.

A highly placed source at the EFCC headquarters in Abuja who spoke in confidence, informed Vanguard of the development on Tuesday evening.

“Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have arrested Lagos-based socialite and businessman Fred Ajudua, pending his re-arraignment for an alleged $1.43 million fraud. He was arrested in Abuja on Tuesday and is currently in EFCC custody,” the source said.

The arrest marks the latest chapter in a legal battle spanning decades between Ajudua and the anti-corruption agency. A former socialite, Ajudua has faced numerous allegations of advance-fee fraud since the 1990s.

The Supreme Court’s decision to revoke his bail followed an earlier ruling by the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, which had granted him bail. The apex court’s ruling reflects the judiciary’s resolve to uphold ability in high-profile fraud cases.

However, there are indications that Ajudua may have absconded prior to his arrest, raising concerns about the enforcement of judicial orders and the effectiveness of compliance mechanisms.

Ajudua’s legal troubles date back to 1993, when he was accused of defrauding a German businessman of $1.43 million.

He has since faced further allegations, including defrauding two Dutch nationals of $1.69 million between 1999 and 2000, and allegedly swindling former Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Ishaya Bamaiyi, of $8.4 million in 2004 while both were detained at Kirikiri Prison.

In 2016, the EFCC filed a 28-count charge against him for conspiracy and obtaining money by false pretences. The case has been plagued by repeated delays, health-related bail applications, and a failed arrest attempt in 2007.

When ed for comment, EFCC spokesperson Dele Oyewale declined to provide further details regarding the arrest.

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/05/breaking-efcc-arrests-fred-ajudua-in-abuja/

Good

Toh

Nemere2020:

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/05/breaking-efcc-arrests-fred-ajudua-in-abuja/

Hmmm. After God, it's government.

These are the people Nigerians worship, and constantly tap grace from.


A hopeless society, founded on theft and it sympathizers.

Toothless EFCC

This is no news for those of us that know Fred Ajudua

SeeAllen:
Toothless EFCC

says a coward whose morality is worse than the supposed toothless people

Agba yahoo...The man who revolutionized 419 in Nigeria

5th May was not a Friday

Nemere2020:

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/05/breaking-efcc-arrests-fred-ajudua-in-abuja/

Omo this guy swindle im fellow convict, respect.

Dont belleve whatever you hear on the Media. knowing that known fraudsters and crooks are the FG themselves.

Jaga9ja:
These are the people Nigerians worship, and constantly tap grace from.


A hopeless society, founded on theft and it sympathizers.

Haaaaa, who dey tap grace from Fred Ajudua? Abi you don't know him ni

Spineless EFCC

Davidorf07:
This is no news for those of us that know Fred Ajudua

E don tey. E get colleagues like Ade Bendel, e.t.c. But one man senior them; that is Emmanuel Nwude

Yahoo Boys and girls, listen, the business of obtaining did not start today, it's an old trade that somehow comes calling later on when u must have finished eating the money. Fred Ajidua was a grand master in this business, none of you have pulled as huge as he did when he was a young man. The case that has sent him back to prison is a yahoo deal he pushed over 30 years ago. He is still paying for it. Imagine you being arrested at your 60s with grand children for the fraud you did 30 years earlier. Its embarrassing.

UcheKingsley1:
Dont belleve whatever you hear on the Media. knowing that known fraudsters and crooks are the FG themselves.

You need medical attention

Nemere2020:

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/05/breaking-efcc-arrests-fred-ajudua-in-abuja/

Fred Ajudua is the most criminal minded nigerian ever

COMRADES are speechless, EFCC just want to get their own share of the loot/fraud nothing else

Lagos socialite ke, business man ko , someone that is in ibusa grabbing lands . lands in asaba, okpanam, ibusa., he's busy grabbing them, well I hope people that he grabbed their land can use this opportunity to reclaim the land.

This guy again.

I thought he was in prison not knowing EFCC have released him to enjoy his loot. He is probably enjoying the generosity of using the loot to fund his wife’s campaign as parliamentarian.
When it comes to politicians EFCC are known to be toothless

Gen Z in the house, gather around the table let me regale you with tales of the most prolific Nigerian fraudster, Fred Ajudua.

See kids, before yahoo, there was yahoo. Fred was and still remains a legend in this regard. The kind of heist he and his men pulled is so phenomenal. Fred put the ya in yahoo. Imagine that they locked him up in prison and right there in prison, he scammed one of the most brutal army generals Nigeria has ever had. General Bamaiyi. A prisoner scamming another prisoner. Fred scammed Bamaiyi of 8.4 million dollars right there in prison!

Fred is extremely smart and suave. He has the gift of garb. That's why Emmanuel Nwude, another big time fraudster and a former executive director of Union Bank, sought his services. Together, the sold a non existent airport to a Brazilian bank for 242 million dollars over 22 years ago. This was done using just a fax machine. No internet, no mobile phones outside thuraya satellite phone, were in existence then.

Oh! A movie has to be made of this. Fred and Nwude were very elaborate. They invited the Brazilians to London, lodged them in the best hotels, hired limousines to chauffeur them around town, took them to the best clubs and spent money like nothing. That wasn't all.

They invited the Brazilians to Nigeria. Right from the Lagos airport, Fred and Nwude paid just about every person that the Brazilians would come in with at the airport. They even hired people to be around the airport to greet Fred and Nwude as extremely wealthy guys. It didn't end there.

NNPC headquarters in Lagos then, was another staging area they used. Nwude, had the Brazilians follow him to the very top floor of the building. He took them to the NNPC boardroom. Paid NNPC staff and hired actors all around the building were greeting Nwude like a boss. The air of confidence Nwude walked into the towers with and the way the paid staff and hired actors showed respect to Nwude, further lulled the Brazilians.

It was right in that NNPC that the Brazilians, thinking they were g a deal of a lifetime, agreed to transfer 242 million dollars to an escrow Nwude provided.

Mind you as at then, no Nigerian bank had a capitalisation of 100 million dollars. So that was enough money to bounce the bank.

The Brazilians, excited, went back to their country. When the call to inspect the non existent airport they bought was not forthcoming, that's when they got apprehensive and got the authorities involved.

This singular scam that Fred and Nwude pulled, is the reason why we have EFCC today. Even Obasanjo as president then, could not comprehend this kind of criminality.

Fred never stopped scamming. He enjoys it and does so for fun. He later went on to become a member of the house of reps before his criminal nature caught up with him and he got sent to prison in Nigeria. His son, used to be Davido's lawyer until Davido dropped him.

What about the Brazilian bank he scammed? Well, the bank collapsed and some of its executives commited suicide. Not a kobo of that money was recovered.

Maybe he non wan decamp.

Oh well

Fred Ajidua suppose don leave this level since. Baba suppose don go clean

OK

This one na senior man for the yahoo business o.

Dis bro get mind scam chief of staff... Omo...

allegedly swindling former Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Ishaya Bamaiyi, of $8.4 million in 2004 while both were detained at Kirikiri Prison:

are they looking at the source of this fund?