A Kogi based lawyer, Chukwueze Ewerem, a lawyer, and Samuel Adeola and Alfa Umar have been accused with participating in a N2.4 million fraud before the Chief Magistrate’s Court in Lokoja, the capital of Kogi State.
He was charged with fraud with the potential for criminal conspiracy, breach of trust, and forgery. The state’s judiciary is said to have been the target of the crimes.
While several of the co-accused are reportedly still at large, Samuel Adeola and Alfa Umar work for the court’s Process Unit in the Litigation Directorate.
They all entered not guilty pleas to the three counts that were leveled against them and which carry penalties under the state’s penal code.
The offences reeled by the prosecution counsel are “criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust by clerk or servant using as genuine forged document and causing disappearance of evidence contrary to sections 97(2), 314, 366 and 167 of the Kogi State Penal Code”.
The case is an offshoot of the discovery of the fraud of N2.4m in revenue that should have been due to the High Court of the state which was reportedly diverted into private accounts.
The crime was reported to have been orchestrated through a syndicate that has been steadily used to defraud and deny the third
arm of government revenues due to her.
Justice Josiah Majebi, the acting chief judge of the state, had, in accordance with his reformative policy to sanitize and restore the integrity of the state judiciary, ordered a thorough investigation of the matter to
bring perpetrators to book upon the discovery and submission of the report of the fraud by the newly created Revenue Services Directorate of the court.
He had established a Revenue Task Force with the promise that those responsible would not get off scot-free to further investigate the court’s revenue gathering procedures in an effort to uncover any other scams.
The report had revealed that the sum of N2.4m, said to have been paid into the court’s account as judgement debt revenue sometime in October 2022 with the bank teller presented as evidence of payment was not paid despite the
evidence of payment showing so. It was gathered that the payment did not reflect in the court’s bank statement for the month.
In line with the Chief Judge’s vow to sanction and hand over anybody, whether staff or members of the public found wanting in the crime to the police for necessary legal action, the matter was reported at the Kogi State Command of the Nigeria Police which quickly swung into action and subsequently took the defendants to court upon completion of investigations.
The defendants, who were each represented by counsel, entered not guilty pleas to the charges after the charge was read to them.
The offense was perpetrated in Lokoja, inside the court’s jurisdiction, around October 25, 2022, according to the prosecution’s attorney, G. O. Otowu.
According to the indictment, the defendants fraudulently misappropriated N2.4 million that was supposed to go to the Kogi State Judiciary account.
However, the court decided to approve the defendants’ request for release after Musa Mopah, the sitting Magistrate, gave it some thought.
“I am of the opinion that the application has merit. I admit the three defendants to bail in the sum of N400,000 each and a surety each in like sum. Two recent passport photographs of a surety are to be lodged at the registry of the court.
The surety must have a fixed and traceable address and must submit original title documents with the statutory Right of Occupancy of land located in Lokoja. He must testify in support of an affidavit of means. The judge directed that the bank account details and BVNs of the defendants and their sureties must be provided to the court registry.
Additionally, during the course of the case, the judge required both the defendants and the sureties to appear in person every Monday and Friday at the court register.
The case was then postponed to December 7th, 2022, so that the hearing could continue while the defendants were released on condition after completing their
bail bonds.
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