COURT FIXES FEBRUARY 13, 2026 FOR JUDGMENT IN CASE INVOLVING CONVICTED FRAUDSTER EMMANUEL NWUDE, TWO LAWYERS

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By Aishat Momoh. O.

Justice Mojisola Dada of the Special Offences Court, Ikeja, has fixed February 13, 2026, for judgment in the ongoing trial of convicted fraudster Emmanuel Nwude and two lawyers, Emmanuel Ilechukwu and Rowland Kalu, over allegations of tampering with a forfeited property.

The court announced the date after listening to the oral submissions of both the prosecution and defence counsel on Monday.

Nwude, alongside his co-defendants, is facing a 15-count charge bordering on forgery and dealing in forfeited property. The defendants allegedly conspired to falsify documents relating to a property previously forfeited by court order.

During the proceedings, defence counsel Chuks Nwanchukwu, F.R.A. Williams (Mrs), and E. Nwokolo urged the court to discharge and acquit their clients of all charges, arguing that the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.

However, prosecuting counsel to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nnaemeka Omewa, urged the court to convict the defendants, maintaining that evidence before the court established that they attempted to forge documents of a property ordered forfeited to Nwude’s victims.

Omewa alleged that the defendants forged a Power of Attorney transferring ownership of the forfeited property to Mankris Ventures Limited, contrary to a subsisting court order issued by then High Court judge, Justice Joseph Olubunmi Oyewole.

Nwude, who gained notoriety as one of Nigeria’s most infamous fraudsters, was convicted in 2005 by Justice Oyewole for impersonating Paul Ogwuma, a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to defraud Banco Noroeste, a Brazilian bank, of $242 million between 1995 and 1998.

At the time, the scam ranked as the third largest bank fraud in the world and led to the collapse of Banco Noroeste in 2001.

Nwude was subsequently sentenced to 25 years in prison, marking one of the first major convictions secured by the then newly established EFCC.

Justice Dada is expected to deliver judgment on the current case on February 13, 2026.