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By Lukman Olabiyi
Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke of the Federal High Court , Lagos has ordered Oba Otudeko to take a plea in the charges filed against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
EFCC had filed a 13-count charge against Otudeko and three others over an alleged N30 billion loan fraud.
At the hearing of the matter on Monday, the judge said Otudeko must take his plea before an application challenging the court’s jurisdiction on the case can be hear.
The judge subsequently adjourned the case to May 8.
Other defendants are Stephen Olabisi Onasanya, a former group managing director of FBN; Soji Akintayo, an ex-board member of Honeywell Flour Mills plc; and Anchorage Limited, a company linked to Otudeko.
In August 2024, Adesuwa Ezenwa, a former relationship manager at First Bank, told the national industrial court that loans worth billions of naira were transferred to companies related to Otudeko even though they were granted in the name of other firms.
The EFCC later charge Otudeko and the other defendants for alleged fraud in January 2025.
They were accused of obtaining tranches of loans—N12.3 billion, N5.2 billion, N6.2 billion, N6.1 billion, and N1.5 billion—from First Bank under the pretence that the funds were obtained by some firms.
The anti-graft agency said the credit facilities were obtained between 2013 and 2014.
