An American, Montia Rice, has approached the Federal High Court in Lagos, seeking an order to enforce a N6.6bn judgment he obtained against an alleged fraudster, Fred Ajudua, and six others.

Rice, who runs a construction company, claimed to have been defrauded by Ajudua and others, who allegedly lured him to execute a purported project in Nigeria.

The United States citizen claimed that based on the fraudulent representation made to him, he was persuaded and the consequently transferred funds from his Barclays Bank United Kingdom account to the defendants through Standard Trust Bank (acquired by UBA).

Rice, however, claimed that upon discovering that he had been duped, he sued the defendants before Justice Dan Abutu of the Federal High Court.

According to him, as Ajudua and others did not enter appearance to defend the suit, Justice Abutu entered judgment in his favour on July 28, 2000.

According to him, Justice Abutu ordered the defendants to make restitution to the claimant in the sum of $6,456,848.61 (about N1,969,331,933.39) as well as “interlocutory judgment” in the sum of $15,364,380 (about N4,686,119,498.58).

Rice, however, claimed that before he could execute the judgment, his Nigerian lawyer, Anthony Okocha, died.

The American claimed to have fled Nigeria following threat to his life by the defendants.

Apart from Ajudua, the other defendants in the suit are Jude Okwudili, Dr. Annuni, Sam Opara, Mamo Feda and Wags Digiteme.

In a fresh move to enforce Justice Abutu’s judgment, Rice, through his new lawyer, Ayodele Akindele, approached Justice Mojisola Olatoregun, praying for the suit to be relisted on the general cause list.

Rice is seeking the leave of the court to apply for the issuance of writ of execution of the judgment delivered by Justice Abutu.

His lawyer, Akindele, said in the affidavit filed in support of the application that no further steps had been taken since Justice Abutu’s judgment.

He said, “The honourable court only set aside the judgment delivered against the first defendant, while both the final and interlocutory judgments delivered against the second to seventh defendants are still subsisting.”

Justice Olatoregun has adjourned till March 8, 2017, to hear the case.


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