The
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arrested one Christy Olabode, a
level six officer of the Accounts Department at the Federal Airports Authority
of Nigeria, for an alleged fraud to the tune of N100m.
The
EFCC said in a statement by its spokesman, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, that her
younger brother, Abdul-Shehu Obaze, an employee of the Commercial Department of
FAAN in Ilorin, Kwara State, and Dominic Ojo, an IT officer at FAAN
headquarters, Lagos, were also arrested for their alleged role in the scam.
According
to the anti-graft agency, Olabode’s arrest was sequel to an anonymous petition,
which indicated that she allegedly diverted the said sum, by inserting names of
non-FAAN employees including dead and retired ones into its payroll. She
allegedly conspired with Obaze, to perpetrate the fraud.
The
statement read in part, “Obaze was found to have maintained not less than eight
accounts in seven banks, which were used to receive the funds for onward
distribution to several high ranking officers within the FAAN.
“The
funds were being paid into his various bank accounts with the narrative,
‘Furniture allowance’. However, while allowance for FAAN’s furniture is usually
paid once in three years, Obaze received the ‘allowance’ several times within a
year.”
Investigations
carried out by the EFCC revealed that the fraud had gone on since 2013. It
unearthed a payroll with names of many dead, retired and disengaged staff of
FAAN listed against Obaze’s different bank accounts.
Upon
interrogation, Obaze, a level nine officer, confessed that other FAAN officials
were involved in the massive fraud, including Olabode’s husband who works in
the Human Resources Department of the
organisation.
Olabode
and Ojo currently enjoy administrative bail, while Obaze remains in EFCC
custody.
They
would be charged to court as soon as investigations are concluded, the EFCC
said.
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