The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Friday arraigned the Managing Director of First Nation Airlines, Kayode Odukoya for fraud running into N1.7 billion.
Odukoya, who was arraigned alongside his defunct Bellview Airline and First Nation Airline, was charged before a Special Offences Court in Ikeja, Lagos.
The airlines and Odukoya were arraigned on four counts before Justice Mojisola Dada.
The charges border on forgery, use of forged documents, perjury and stealing.
The EFCC, in the charges, alleged that the defendants forged the Memorandum of Loss of Lagos State Certificate of Occupancy registered as No. 33, at page 33, Volume 1011 at the Lagos State Land Registry, Alausa, Lagos.
According to the EFCC, the allegedly forged document was in respect of a property located at No. 29 Oduduwa Street, GRA, Ikeja.
The EFCC claimed that the defendants forged the document “in order that the document be acted upon as genuine.”
Odukoya was accused of dishonestly converting to his own use a sum of N1.7 billion belonging to Skye Bank Plc.
The prosecutor, M.S. Usman, told the court that the defendants acted contrary to sections 85, 86(1), 278(1)(b), 285, 361(1)(a)(b), 363 and 364(1) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2011.
The defendants however pleaded not guilty to the offences.
Justice Dada ordered the remand of Odukoya in EFCC custody and adjourned the suit till March 26, 2018, to hear the accused’s bail application.