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High Court in Kogi State sitting in Koton-Karfe has sentenced a Revenue Clerk working at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Lokoja, Modupe Adeyemi to three months in prison for defrauding the centre of N8.3 million.
The trial judge, Justice Alaba Omolaye-Ajileye handed down the sentence in his judgement on Tuesday, saying it was without an option of fine.
Nigerian Pilot gathered that Adeyemi was arraigned in January 2010 on a 29-count charge which borders on fraud and allegedly conferment of corrupt advantage upon herself.
According to the report, the convict was said to have, as Revenue Clerk, between April, 2006 and November, 2007 committed the offence, as a result she was arraigned by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to that effect.
She was charged for using her position as a public officer to confer corrupt advantage upon herself contrary to section 19 of the corrupt practices and other related offences Act, 2000.
It also includes furnishing false state of returns in respect of public revenue and alteration of figures of sums in duplicate copies of UBA and Zenith bank tellers with intent to defraud, the FMC of the money entrusted in her care.
The judge said the prosecution led by Henry Emore of ICPC failed to prove the issues of falsification of documents but upheld conferment of corrupt advantage.
According to the judge, the convict had earlier made confessional statement of how she defrauded the Federal institution and used the money to establish pure water factory and acquire property, adding that she later denied the confessional statement, causing a “trial within trial” to be conducted to determine the authenticity of the statement which was later upheld.
Omlaye-Ajileye said the prosecution proved its case of conferment of corrupt advantage beyond reasonable doubt and therefore convicted Adeyemi of 10 out of the 29 count-charges.
The presiding Judge described the conduct of the convict as a revenue clerk at the centre as ‘’reprehensible’’ stressing that her mode of fraudulent practices was “crude and lacking in finesse”; blaming her employers for lacking in effective machinery of supervision over her.
