Village Court Principal Magistrate, Othilia Zwide, will on the 10 and 11 December preside over a case in which an alleged Nigerian fraudster, Ekunwe Obinna, who is currently in police custody, is facing multiple fraud charges.
Obinna is facing charges of having defrauded several financial institutions and organasations in the country over a period of months.
Amongst the financial institutions and organasations he is alleged to have swindled of various sums of money in Francistown where he was residing are the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Stanbic Bank, Barclays Bank, Botswana Insurance Company (BIC) and the First National Bank.
The Nigerian fraudster is alleged to have defrauded the following institutions of the following amounts:
From SADC he is alleged to have swindled P30, 482; BIC P65,000, P65,352, P51,920 and P59,210 whilst from Barclays Bank he had swindled P30,482 and P20,000.
He is also reported to have swindled the First National Bank of P65, 000 on two occasions. All the alleged thefts are reported to have been done with stolen cheques.
Investigators arrested Obinna whilst he was in the process of cashing another alleged stolen cheque in Francistown and they also claim that they have not recovered any of the alleged stolen money.
Two months ago, Zwide turned down Obinna’s bail application on grounds that the accused person was facing a serious crime that could see him serving a sentence of up to seven years in prison.
This, she said, invited the risk that he might abscond if given bail. She also said that the risk was compounded by the fact that the accused was a foreigner with no asserts in the country.
On Obinna’s point that he was staying with someone in Gaborone West, Zwide, said that Obinna had not told the Court precisely how he is related to that person that would make him not to abscond.
Obinna was initially represented by Ookeditse Maphakwane in this matter but is currently not represented after Maphakwane had withdrawn.
