Two Kwara Civil Servants Docked over N14.609m Fraud

Hammed Shittu in Ilorin

Two Kwara State civil servants, Adeyemo Olarewaju and Tajudeen Alao, were over the weekend docked at the state Upper Area Court in Ilorin the state capital.

The duo were charged with alleged fraud of N14.609 million

The affected civil servants, who are members of staff of the Kwara State Printing and Publishing Corporation, publishers of The Herald titles, appeared before Mr. Sunday Adeniyi of the Upper Area Court in Ilorin over allegations of fraud in the Cooperative Society being operated in the media organisation.

According to the details of a direct complaint from the corporation’s New Hope Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited, the duo are the immediate-past chairman and secretary of the cooperative society respectively.

The criminal summons presented to the court against the duo disclosed that the two officials could not account for the sum of N14,609,100 (fourteen million, six hundred and nine thousand, one hundred naira) only after their tenure between 2012 and 2022.

The criminal summons further revealed that: “However, after the tenure of the duo, the Ministry of Commerce and Cooperative officials audited the account of the cooperative and imposed N1 million penalty on the defendants for their poor management of the account of the cooperative society but the defendants failed to pay the penalty till date.

“The defendants also failed to refund the sum of N14,609,100 misappropriated despite repeated demands, hence this application.”

In his bail application, counsel to the defendants, Mr. Bisi Adedayo of Onaolapo Chambers prayed the court to grant his clients bail in liberal terms, assuring the court that they would provide reliable sureties that would stand for them before the court and that they would not jump bail.

The complainant counsel, Hawawu Nana Abubakar of Manzuma Issa & Co., did not oppose the bail application.

The defendants, who pleaded not guilty to the charges, were granted bail in the sum of N1 million each with two sureties who must be civil servants on Grade Level 12 and above.

The court also asked each of the defendants to deposit N3million (in the Treasury of the Court.

The case was adjourned till October 21, 2024, for continuation of the hearing.