Ndubisi Kenechukwu Ugonna, a businessman has been arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) before Justice E. Okpe of the Federal Capital Territory High Court in Gudu, Abuja, over an alleged $500,000 fraud.
Ugonna is facing a one-count charge related to advance fee fraud and obtaining money by false pretence.
According to the EFCC, he allegedly defrauded Kofoworola Olagunju of $500,000 under the pretext of having the ability to invest the funds in global security on Olagunju’s behalf.
Investigations revealed that the supposed investment scheme was fictitious and that Ugonna knowingly misrepresented the facts.
The charge reads in part: “That you, Ndubisi Kenechukwu Ugonna, sometime in 2020 in Abuja, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, with intent to defraud, did obtain the total sum of $500,000 from one Kofoworola Olagunju under the false pretence that you had capacity to invest in global security on his behalf and that the investment business was genuine, which pretence you knew to be false…”
Ugonna pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Following the plea, the prosecution counsel, Joshua Saidi, asked the court to set a trial date and to remand the defendant in a correctional facility. The defence counsel, however, urged the court to consider a bail application and requested that his client be kept in EFCC custody pending its hearing.
Justice Okpe adjourned the matter to September 25, 2025, for hearing on the bail application. He ordered that the defendant be remanded at the Kuje Correctional Centre in the meantime.