Three Osun Civil Servants Arraigned For Alleged Diversion Of Cooperative Society’s N83.5m

Three employees of the Osun State Environmental Protection Commission have been remanded in prison after they were arraigned by the Ibadan Zonal office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

They are, Adegoke Johnson Adebayo, Ayodele Elijah Olubunmi Sunday and Adelowo Waheed Adewole.

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The three were arraigned by the EFCC on Wednesday before Justice Ladiran Akintola of the Oyo State High Court, Ibadan for N83.5million loan fraud.

The suspects, who are president, secretary and treasurer respectively of the commission’s staff cooperative society, allegedly diverted the sum, obtained as loan for the cooperative members.

EFCC Spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren said in a statement on Wednesday evening that the anti-graft agency preferred a 10-count bordering on conspiracy, abuse of office, stealing, forgery, altering, and obtaining money under false pretence against them.

One of the charge read: That you, Adegoke Johnson Adebayo (President), Ayodele Elijah Olubunmi Sunday(Secretary) and Adelowo Waheed Adewole (Treasurer) and Gbenga Joseph Zacheus (at large) sometime in the year 2014, at Yemetu, Ibadan, within the Ibadan Judicial Division of this honourable court, obtained the sum of N83,500,000.00 (Eighty Three Million and Five Hundred Thousand Naira) only from First Bank of Nigeria Limited by falsely pretending that it is a loan, strictly for members and staff of the Osun State Environmental Protection Commission (Osogbo) Staff Co-operative Investment and Credit Society Limited which representations you knew to be false and you thereby committed an offence.”

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According to Uwujaren, the suspects pleaded not guilty to the charges, upon which prosecution counsel, Dr. Ben Ubi, applied for a trial date and an order for the defendants to be remanded in a correctional facility, while defence counsel, A. T. Adeleye, informed the court of a joint bail application of her clients which she said, has been served on the prosecution.

The judge adjourned the case till October 14, 2020 for the hearing of the bail application and ordered that the defendants be remanded in the custody of Nigerian Correctional Service.

Uwujaren gave an insight into how the case started: “Trouble started for the defendants following a First Bank of Nigeria PLC petition to the EFCC, alleging that the threesome, sometime in 2014 approached the bank for a loan facility to the tune of N83,500, 000 (Eighty Three Million, Five Hundred Thousand) on behalf of members of the society, but discovered a foul play as the loan beneficiaries began making the repayment in amounts that fell far below the agreed monthly installment.

“In the course of investigations, the EFCC discovered that the defendants cooked up the list of the loan beneficiaries and other documents they presented to the bank for the processing of the loan.”

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