Nigerian fraudster gets bail in Botswana

File Photo: Clyde Robinson

File Photo: Clyde Robinson

Published Mar 12, 2015

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Gaborone - A Gaborone magistrate's court has granted bail to a Nigerian national accused of swindling First National Bank, Botswana's Mmegi newspaper reported on Thursday.

Broadhurst Magistrate Taboka Slave said the prosecution failed to justify why Chukwuma Ezekannagha might abscond from scheduled court appearances.

Slave said the court had not been convinced that Ezekannagha could influence investigations if granted bail. He faces a single count of obtaining by false pretences.

Ezekannagha was granted Pula 100 000 (about R121 867) bail, with conditions.

He had to report to the police three times a day and surrender his travel documents.

He was ordered to produce two sureties of Pula 50 000 (R60 933) each and ordered not to tamper with the investigation.

Slave said the prosecution had indicated the investigation was likely to take longer. This meant that if denied bail, Ezekannagha would spend much time in prison. If found not guilty his family and his car dealership business would have suffered, said Slave.

According to court records, Ezekannagha, 51, allegedly obtained Pula 2 million (around R2.4m) on October 20, 2014 by claiming he had plots in Mogoditshane village to use as security.

Investigations later revealed Ezekannagha did not own the plots. He was arrested by directorate of intelligence officials on February 5, 2015 and jailed in the Gaborone maximum security prison.

His lawyer Paul Muzimo said the accused owned several businesses that would suffer if he was denied bail, and that he was a family man who did not own any property outside Botswana.

Sapa

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