Ex-Kwara Scholarship Board forged 326 signatures, says witness

Juliana Francis

A prosecution witness has told Justice Sikiru Oyinloye of a Kwara State High Court, sitting in Ilorin, that the signatures of 326 students listed by the Kwara Scholarship Board under the leadership of Alhaja Fatimoh Yusuf to be beneficiaries of the N50million state bursary were forged.

Yusuf, the immediate past chairperson of the Kwara State Board, is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, alongside the board’s executive secretary, Fatai Lamidi, and its accountant, Stephen Ajewole, for allegedly diverting money meant for payment of 2018 students’ bursary.

Testifying on March 11, 2020 as the second prosecution witness, PW2, Abdulkareem Ismail, a former president of the National Association of Kwara State Students, Sokoto State Polytechnic, told the Court that only 50 students of the polytechnic, benefited from the bursary.

He said: “When the scholarship board officials arrived, it was during strike period, we did head count, and less than 200 students were on ground. The board officials disqualified many people, they said only 50 students were eligible to collect the bursary. I was among the 50 persons that benefited from the bursary, but they never asked us to append our signatures, and I did not append my signature. I was invited by the EFCC last year, where I was shown the list of beneficiaries submitted by the Board. I discovered that there were many irregularities. In the list shown me at the EFCC office, 326 students were paid, as claimed by the Scholarship board, but the list was not a true reflection of what happened, because only 50 students were paid. The list submitted to the scholarship board officials prior to the payment contained more details of students’ bio-data, but the one generated by the Board was doctored.”

Justice Oyinloye, thereafter, adjourned until March 23, 2020 for continuation of trial.  

In another development, Justice Mobolaji Olajuwon of the Federal High Court sitting in Makurdi, Benue State has sentenced Braimoh Azeez Oluwadamilare to two years imprisonment with an option of fine of N50, 000, for obtaining money by false pretence to the tune of N70, 000.00.

The convict was arraigned on a one-count charge by the EFCC, Makurdi Zonal office, on Tuesday, where he pleaded 'guilty' after a plea bargain agreement with the Commission.

The count reads: “That you, Braimoh Azeez Oluwadamilare sometime in August 2019, in Makurdi within the jurisdiction of this honourable Court with intent to defraud, obtained the sum of N70,000.00 only from Mavis Ngohile Damkor under false pretence that she should invest with the said amount and get double of it within 45 minutes which pretence you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to section 1(2) of Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under section 1(3) of the same Act.”

In view of his guilty plea, and subsequent review of the facts of the case, counsel for the EFCC, Y.Y. Tarfa, prayed the court to convict him accordingly. However, defence counsel, Donald M. Kwaghtser, pleaded with the Court to temper justice with mercy, saying his client was a first-time offender.

Consequently, Justice Olajuwon convicted and sentenced him to two years imprisonment, with an option of fine of N50,000.00.

The trial judge further ordered that the sum of N70, 000.00, which had been refunded by the convict during the course of investigation should be paid to the victim as a restitution, and that the convict should undertake not to commit any further financial crime again.