Alleged N1.3bn Fraud: Court Adjourns Trial Of Ex-Cop, Firm, Three Others Till Apr 18
Justice O.O. Abike-Fadipe of a Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos, has adjourned the N1.3 billion fraud trial of one Okpalugo Ifeoma, a retired Assistant Commissioner of Police; Olumide Odumosu; Helen Nwafor, and Sule Yusuf Tegina, till Thursday, April 18, 2024.
Justice O.O. Abike-Fadipe of a Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos, has adjourned the N1.3 billion fraud trial of one Okpalugo Ifeoma, a retired Assistant Commissioner of Police; Olumide Odumosu; Helen Nwafor, and Sule Yusuf Tegina, till Thursday, April 18, 2024.
Count four reads: "Ogbadu Joseph (now at large), Hassan Paiko Muhammed (now at large), and Olumide Odumosu, between 6th day of January 2015, and 31st of December 2015 in Lagos within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court dishonestly converted to your use the sum of N213,170,000.00 property of the Nigeria Police Force."
Count 13 reads: "Ogbadu Joseph (now at large), Hassan Paiko Muhammed (now at large), Helen Nwafor, and Okpalugo Ifeoma between the 26th day of April and 5th day of December 2013 in Lagos within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court dishonestly converted to your own use the sum of N60,375,000.00 property of the Nigeria Police Force."
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Monday, February 19, 2024 presented its first witness, Chukwuma Orji, an investigative officer with the EFCC.
Orji, who was led in evidence by the prosecuting counsel, A.O. Muhammed, narrated how investigation exposed their various roles in the alleged fraud.
"In investigating the allegation against them, we wrote a letter to the Ministry of Finance with respect to the account in First Bank that received the flow of money for Police personnel, and they provided us with the documents for the credit to the account," he said.
He testified further that investigation showed that money meant for Police personnel in the South-West was transferred to an account of the Police in the then Skye Bank from which the money was transferred to the Lagos Command.
"Through this means, the fourth defendant acquired houses in Abuja," he said.
According to him, letters of investigation were written to First Bank, then Skye Bank, and Zenith Bank.
"Responses were received including account opening packages and statements of account, which were all analysed, and we discovered that the defendants used a fake address to open an account, which they used to divert the money," he said.
At the resumed sitting on February 20, 2024 the prosecution sought to tender the various documents in evidence against the defendants, but the defence, led by A.A. Malik, SAN, raised objections to the admissibility of the documents.
Thereafter, Justice Abike-Fadipe adjourned till April 18, 2024 to deliver ruling on the admissibility of the documents
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