How Lagos scholarship board secretary embezzled ₦127m – Witness reveals

Monday Moley, an investigator with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, has narrated to a Lagos State Special Offences Court how a former Secretary, Lagos State Scholarship Board, Stephen Oshinowo, diverted the sum of ₦127m.

Stephen Oshinowo was arraigned on an amended eight counts bordering on criminal conversion. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Moley, while being led in evidence by the EFCC counsel, Usman Buhari, told the court that Oshinowo used his account domiciled in the United Bank of Africa to perpetrate each of the alleged fraud on the charge sheet.

According to Moley, the defendant received the sum of N30 million in tranches of N10 million from the account of the Board domiciled with the FCMB for the use of staff welfarism and office renovation but later converted same to personal use.

She said, “The commission froze the defendant’s UBA accounts and commenced an investigation into the allegations, but at the time of freezing the account, the defendant had converted parts of the proceed of the fraud to personal use.

“Our investigation revealed that the defendant sent part of the proceed to his wife, Adenike’s account domiciled with Zenith Bank, pay for flight trips, supermarket sales, POS transactions and kept others in a fixed deposit account.”

However, after the evidence of the witness, the EFCC counsel sought to tender the defendant’s statements to the court.

But the defendant counsel, Lawal Pedro (SAN), opposed the submission of the statements on the grounds that the statements were obtained under physical and emotional torture.

Following the arguments of the counsel, Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo adjourned till March 7, 2021, for a trial within trial.