By Chizoba Ogbeche
Abuja
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, yesterday said it has arrested a Director in Project Management Department of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Engr. Roberts A. Obuoha over an attempt to bribe its operative.
A press statement signed by the commissions spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, in Abuja, said he was picked up for attempting to bribe the EFCC Zonal Head (South-South), Mr. Ishaq Salihu.
According to the statement, the suspect who is under investigation, was invited to write a statement in a case of Contract Splitting and over inflation and after he was quizzed and offered administrative bail, he returned to the commission the next day to perfect his bail, and offered the zonal head the sum of N150,000, to buy recharge card.
Uwujaren said the suspect, however, claimed that he offered the said money to Salihu in order to build a good relationship with him.
The EFCC also handed over a forfeited asset of an uncompleted three-bedroom bungalow from one Seun Jamiu Odunayo to the complainant, Skye Bank Plc.
Uwujaren, in a statement said trouble started for Odunayo, former banker and native of Sagamu in Ogun state, when the commission received a petition from one of the banks, sometime in 2012 following a complaint by one of their customers that N8, 829, 650 was not credited to his account after he made a deposit at the bank with their cash officer (Odunayo).
He said the bank further alleged that customer’s daily sales proceed meant to be lodged into the customer’s account which were picked from over four outlets were also not credited.
The spokesperson said, Odunayo was later arrested by operatives of the EFCC at his residence in Sagamu and was arraigned on November 1, 2012, before Justice O. A. Akinlade of the Lagos State High Court, Ikeja, on a 39-count charge bordering on fraudulent accounting and stealing, contrary to the Criminal Code Law of Lagos State. He pleaded not guilty.
He said, however, as the trial progressed, the accused person changed his plea and on February 17, 2014, based on the guilty plea, Justice Akinlade sentenced Odunayo to three years imprisonment without an option of fine on each of the 39 counts, which were to run concurrently commencing from November 1, 2012 when he was remanded in prison custody.
