Two civil servants in Kwara State who were charged and arrived in an Upper Area Court sitting in Ilorin for alleged N14.609m fraud were granted bail of N1m on Friday. The suspect identities were disclosed as Adeyemo Olarewaju and Tajudeen Alao.
According to reports the two charged staff are employees of the Kwara State Printing and Publishing Corporation, publishers of The Herald titles. The suspects were brought before the Mr Sunday Adeniyi of the Upper Area Court in Ilorin, they were charged with allegations of fraud in the cooperative society being operated in the media organisation.
In the details of the compliment sent by the corporation New Hope Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited the two individuals were the immediate past Chairman and Secretary of the cooperative society, respectively
According to the criminal summons which was presented to the court against the two accused persons, it was noted that the two persons had failed to account for the sum of N14,609,100 after their tenure had elapsed. They had run the corporation between 2012 and 2022.
In the other details of the criminal summons, it revealed that after the individuals had left office, the Ministry of Commerce and Cooperative officials audited the account of the cooperative and imposed an N1m penalty on the defendants for their poor management of the account of the cooperative society but the defendants failed to pay the penalty until date.
Also, the defendant, according to the summon, failed to refund N14,609,100, which was the total amount that was misappropriated by them. It was disclosed that the organization had made several demands, but they have failed to make the refunds, which has necessitated the application for the summon.
While presenting his bail application, the counsel to the defendants, Mr Bisi Adedayo of Onaolapo Chambers, asked the court to grant his client bail in the most liberal terms with the assurance that sureties would be provided to help in their release. The counsel also assured the court that the client would not jump bail and be present in court when requested.
When the bail application was presented, the counsel to the complainant, Hawawu Nana Abubakar of Manzuma Issa & Co did not stand against the application.
The defendants were asked to deposit the sum of N3m each in the treasury of the court.
The case was adjourned till October 21, 2024, for the continuation of the hearing.
