- Safiu Kehinde
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has on Friday arraigned two suspects over alleged £110,000 and N500 million fraud.
The suspects, identified as Ali Bala and Yusuf Umar Anka, were arriagned before Justice Olukayode Ogunjobi of the Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja, by the Lagos Zonal Directorate 1 of the EFCC.
Accordinto a statement issued on the anti-graft agency’s X handle yesterday, the defendants are standing trial on a 10-count charge bordering on money laundering, stealing, and retention of stolen property.
One of the counts reads: “That you, ALI BALA (a.k.a. Barrister Ahmed) and YUSUF UMAR ANKA, sometime in 2025 in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, conducted financial transactions involving proceeds of your unlawful activities to disguise the source of the stolen £110,000.00 (One Hundred and Ten Thousand Pounds Sterling), and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 7(1)(b)(i) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006.”
The defendants pleaded “not guilty” to the charge.
In view of their pleas, prosecution counsel, H.U. Kofarnaisa, requested for a trial date and urged the court to remand the defendants in a correctional facility.
Defence counsel, however, informed the court of a pending bail application.
In his ruling, Justice Ogunjobi adjourned the matter to September 8, 2026, for the hearing of the bail application, and ordered that the defendants be remanded in EFCC custody pending the hearing.