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The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Lagos Zonal Directorate 1, has arraigned two individuals Abel Egerton Sokari and Nkiruka Chukwuma alongside a company, Zakah Global Investment Limited for attempting to defraud First Bank of €49 million .
According to the EFCC, the defendants attempted to fraudulently obtain €49,000,000 from First Bank of Nigeria using forged documents and false representation of a foreign bank transaction.
They were docked on Monday, July 7, 2025, before Justice Mojisola Dada of the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos, on a six-count charge bordering on obtaining by false pretence, possession of fraudulent documents, and forgery.
One of the charges read
“That you, Abel Egerton Sokari, Nkiruka Chukwuma, Zakah Global Investment Limited, Cheryl Austin Adanti (at large), Husain Abid (at large), Shazad Muhammed (at large), and Ismail Adil (at large), on or about the 19th day of May 2025, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, with intent to defraud, attempted to obtain the sum of Forty-Nine Million Euros (€49,000,000.00) from First Bank of Nigeria by falsely representing that Bayan Investment Bank and Hedge Fund Statutory Trust had transferred the aforementioned sum into account number 2046430791 belonging to Zakah Global Investment Limited, domiciled at First Bank of Nigeria.”
The commission also accused the defendants of possessing forged legal documents purportedly linked to a former U.S. president’s defence attorney.
“That you, Abel Egerton Sokari and Nkiruka Chukwuma, sometime in April 2024 in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, had in your possession a document containing false pretences, to wit: a letter purportedly from the law office of Steven H. Sado, P.C., a lead defence attorney for U.S. President Donald Trump, which document you knew to be false,” they stated
Sokari and Chukwuma pleaded not guilty to all the charges brought against them. Prosecution counsel H.U. Kofarnaisa applied for a trial date and urged the court to remand the defendants in custody.
Counsel to the first and second defendants Clement Onwenwnor, SAN, and Laolu Owolabi, SAN urged the court to grant their clients bail on the most liberal terms. They also undertook to take custody of the defendants pending the perfection of bail.
Justice Dada granted each defendant bail in the sum of N500,000, with one surety in like sum. They were temporarily released to their counsel, with a one-month deadline to meet the bail conditions.
The matter was adjourned to October 29, 2025, for trial.
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