The Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission has arrested one Christy Olabode, a level six officer of the
Accounts Department at the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, for an
alleged fraud to the tune of N100m.
The EFCC said in a statement by its
spokesman, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, that her younger brother, Abdul-Shehu
Obaze, an employee of the Commercial Department of FAAN in Ilorin, Kwara
State, and Dominic Ojo, an IT officer at FAAN headquarters, Lagos, were
also arrested for their alleged role in the scam.
According to the anti-graft agency,
Olabode’s arrest was sequel to an anonymous petition, which indicated
that she allegedly diverted the said sum, by inserting names of non-FAAN
employees including dead and retired ones into its payroll. She
allegedly conspired with Obaze, to perpetrate the fraud.
The statement read in part, “Obaze was
found to have maintained not less than eight accounts in seven banks,
which were used to receive the funds for onward distribution to several
high ranking officers within the FAAN.
“The funds were being paid into his
various bank accounts with the narrative, ‘Furniture allowance’.
However, while allowance for FAAN’s furniture is usually paid once in
three years, Obaze received the ‘allowance’ several times within a
year.”
Investigations carried out by the EFCC
revealed that the fraud had gone on since 2013. It unearthed a payroll
with names of many dead, retired and disengaged staff of FAAN listed
against Obaze’s different bank accounts.
Upon interrogation, Obaze, a level nine
officer, confessed that other FAAN officials were involved in the
massive fraud, including Olabode’s husband who works in the Human
Resources Department of the organisation.
Olabode and Ojo currently enjoy administrative bail, while Obaze remains in EFCC custody.
They would be charged to court as soon as investigations are concluded, the EFCC said.
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