Two Kwara civil servants granted N1m bail for alleged fraud

Two Kwara State civil servants, Adeyemo Olarewaju and Tajudeen Alao, were on Friday granted a N1m bail following their arraignment at an Upper Area Court sitting in Ilorin for alleged N14.609m fraud.

The duo who are staff members of the Kwara State Printing and Publishing Corporation, publishers of The Herald titles, appeared before Mr Sunday Adeniyi of the Upper Area Court in Ilorin over allegations of fraud in the cooperative society being operated in the media organisation.

According to the details of a direct complaint from the corporation’s New Hope Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited, the duo are the immediate past Chairman and Secretary of the cooperative society respectively.

The criminal summons presented to the court against the duo disclosed that the two officials could not account for the sum of N14,609,100 only after their tenure which was between 2012 and 2022.

The criminal summons further revealed that, “However, after the tenure of the duo, the Ministry of Commerce and Cooperative officials audited the account of the cooperative and imposed N1m penalty on the defendants for their poor management of the account of the cooperative society but the defendants failed to pay the penalty uptil date.

“The defendants also failed to refund the sum of N14,609,100 misappropriated despite repeated demands, hence this application.”

In his bail application, counsel for the defendants, Mr Bisi Adedayo of Onaolapo Chambers, prayed the court to grant his clients bail in liberal terms assuring the court that they would provide reliable sureties that would stand for them and that they would not jump bail.

The complainant’s counsel, Hawawu Nana Abubakar of Manzuma Issa & Co., did not oppose the bail application.

The defendants who pleaded not guilty to the charges were granted bail in the sum of N1m each with two sureties who must be civil servants on Grade Level 12 and above.

The court also asked each of the defendants to deposit N3m in the treasury of the court.

The case was adjourned till October,21, 2024 for continuation of hearing.