The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC on Wednesday, October 7, 2020 arraigned three Osun civil servants in court for alleged fraud.
Th trio of Adegoke Johnson Adebayo, Ayodele Elijah Olubunmi Sunday and Adelowo Waheed Adewole, were arraigned before Justice Ladiran Akintola of the Oyo State High Court, Ibadan for N83,500, 000 loan fraud.
The suspects, who are staff of Osun State Environmental Protection Commission, and president, secretary and treasurer of the Commission’s staff cooperative society, respectively, allegedly diverted the sum, obtained as loan for the cooperative members.
The EFCC preferred a 10-count charge, bordering on conspiracy, abuse of office, stealing, forgery, altering, and obtaining money under false pretence against them.
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.
Daily mail learnt that 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 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.
It was gathered that 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.
