Alleged N44m Fraud in Mopamuro LGA; Court Releases Petitioners on Bail

387
Spread the love

After staying in detention for about nine days, three citizens of Kogi State, Samuel Ajewole, Alege V.M and Sunmonu Abayomi were on Monday granted bail by Senior Magistrate Court 1 Lokoja.

The three, made up of two men and a woman were charged for conspiracy and defamation of character. They pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Snr. Magistrate Clement Kekere while admitting the suspects to bail asked them to produce a state civil servant on not below level six as surety each.

The trio have been under investigation by men of the State Criminal Investigations Department (SCID) for roles they allegedly played in the draft and circulation of a petition against David Sunday Moses, the Special Assistant on Security Matters to Governor Yahaya Bello in charge of Mopamuro Local Government Area.

The Mopamuro chapter of the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) of Secondary Schools, has in a petition accused Sunday Moses, aka Alumo, of outright embezzlement of the council fund to the tune of N44 million. The said fund was meant for the payment of 10 months outstanding and three months salary of the workers. The arrears have been pending since 2016.

Both Alege and Sunmonu who signed the petition are Chairperson and Secretary respectively of the Union in the Local Government Area. Ajewole is said to have shared a post on the petition on his Facebook page. Alumo was former Administrator of the council and now seeking to be it’s elected Chairman.

According to the petitioners, the State government has released the said money to the council areas. They explained that while their colleagues in other Local Government have been paid, David diverted their own money to personal needs.

“Our complaint against the administrator is in respect of the sum of N44, 000,000 (Forty–Four Million Naira) only which was part of the money given to the administrator by the state government to settle our 13 months outstanding salary arrears from 2016. The said sums are emanated from the 10 months salary and 3 months bailout given to the administrator.

“It is a fact that cannot be denied that the said sums were given to our administrator to pay our 13 months salary just like they were given to other administrators in the state. It will interest you to know sir, that all the administrators in the state paid the said 13 months salary to their staff as appropriated save our administrator who brazenly and with impunity failed, refused and neglected to pay us the said salary.

“It is also worthy of note that we have made several demands, appeals and negotiations with the administrator regarding the said sums meant for our 13 months salary arrears and same was computed and confirmed by the Treasurer to the Local Government to a sum of N44, 000,000 (Forty–Four Million Naira) only.

“We hereby attach to this complaint the payment particulars of the affected staff whose 13 months salary totaled N44, 000,000 (Forty–Four Million Naira) only that have been diverted, embezzled and misappropriated by the administrator, while the administrators in other Local Government Areas in the State have paid all our colleagues in their respective councils,” the petitioners averred.

After granting the suspects bail, the senior Magistrate adjourned the case till June 30th.

Credit: TheNews


Spread the love



Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *