EFCC agents have reportedly arrested Lagos businessman Fred Ajudua in Abuja after the Supreme Court cancelled his bail.
A report by The Punch cited an anonymous high-ranking EFCC official as its source.
The agency took Ajudua into custody on Tuesday. He faces charges of defrauding Palestinian businessman Zad Abu Zalaf of $1,043,000 and currently remains under EFCC detention.
“We have arrested Ajudua pending his re-arraignment in court. He was arrested in Abuja on Tuesday, and he’s in our custody as we speak,” the source said.
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Dele Oyewale, who heads the EFCC’s Media and Publicity department, chose not to comment on the matter.
On Friday, 5 May 2025, the Supreme Court ruled that Ajudua should go to prison and cancelled the bail that the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal had granted him on 10 September 2018.
When Justice Dada first heard the case in June 2018, she refused to grant Ajudua bail because of the case’s long and complicated history.
The Appeal Court later reversed this decision and gave him bail—a decision the EFCC then challenged at the Supreme Court.
In its final judgment, the Supreme Court agreed with the EFCC’s appeal and ordered that the original decision to deny bail should stand. The court also instructed the Chief Judge of Lagos State to send the case back to Justice Dada to continue the trial.
Ajudua will likely face the court again soon as the case restarts.
