News Rain Nigeria reports that the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, Ibadan Zonal Headquarters had on Wednesday arraigned Civil Servants of Osun State over their alleged involvements in N83.5m loan Fraud.
The EFCC, according to a press release by its head of media and publicity, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, which a copy was made available to the
News Rain reporter in Ibadan, the Capital City of Oyo State on Wednesday, 7th, October 2020, gave the names of the suspected fraudsters as Adegoke Johnson Adebayo, Ayodele Elijah Olubui Sunday and Adelowo Waheed Adewole.
Why Osun Civil Servants Were Docked Over Fraud
The Financial Crime Commission also in the press release confirmed that the trio of Adegoke Johnson Adebayo, Ayodele Elijah Olubunmi Sunday, and Adelowo Waheed Adewole, have been arraigned before Justice Ladiran Akintola of the Oyo State High Court, Ibadan for N83,500, 000 (Eighty-Three Million, Five Hundred Thousand) loan fraud.
The suspects according to the release by the EFCC were said to be staffs of Osun State Environmental Protection Commission, and president, secretary, and treasurer of the Commission’s staff cooperative society, respectively.
The suspects are in court for allegedly diverting the sum, obtained as a loan for the cooperative members.
According to the release from the EFCC, it noted that the suspects got into trouble 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.
However, the EFCC had preferred a 10-count charge, bordering on conspiracy, abuse of office, stealing, forgery, altering, and obtaining money under false pretense against them.
One of the charges 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 honorable 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 offense.”
Though the suspected fraudsters pleaded not guilty to the charges levied against them, and in the process, the prosecution counsel, Dr. Ben Ubi, applied for a trial date and an order for the defendants to be remanded in a correctional facility, while defense 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 the Nigerian Correctional Service.
