EFCC takes legal action against civil servants over alleged N83.5m fraud
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ibadan Zonal Office on Wednesday, October 7, 2020
arraigned the trio of Adegoke Johnson Adebayo,
Ayodele Elijah Olubunmi Sunday and Adelowo Waheed Adewole, 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, who are said to be staff of the Osun State Environmental Protection Commission,
are also the president, secretary, and treasurer of the staff cooperative society of the Commission respectively.
The trio, alleged of diverting the sum that was obtained as a loan for the cooperative members,
were charged with 10-counts bordering on conspiracy, abuse of office, stealing, forgery, altering, and obtaining
money under pretense.
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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 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 offence.”
They 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 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 Nigerian Correctional Service.
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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