Fresh details have emerged as to how the duo of Samuel Saleh Umoru,
\nchief accounting officer of the Makurdi Zonal Office of the Joint
\nAdmissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB and Mrs Philomina Chieshe, a
\nclerical officer in the same office, conspired to stop the Board’s
\nauditor, Mallam Ibrahim Oba, from carrying out a financial audit of the
\nzonal office with a bribe of N50,000.00 (Fifty Thousand Naira).<\/p>\n
This was revealed by the first prosecution witness, Patrick Obilo who is
\nalso an auditor with the Board, as he appeared before Justice Peter
\nAffen of the FCT High Court, Maitama, Abuja on Monday, September 30,
\n2019.<\/p>\n
Umoru and Chieshe are first and second defendants respectively in a
\ncharge brought against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes
\nCommission (EFCC), over the disappearance of JAMB’s N35,000,000
\n(Thirty-five Million Naira) in its Makurdi Zonal Office, where both
\nwork.<\/p>\n
During Obilo’s cross-examination by prosecution counsel, Ekele
\nIheanacho, he disclosed that Oba was sent to the Makurdi Office of JAMB
\nin 2016 for a routine examination of the account books and consignment
\nnotes, which show quantities of items supplied such as e-facility
\ncards-used to check and print results, change of course card, scratch
\ncards, question and answer cards, receipts or tellers.<\/p>\n
He revealed that during this procedure Chieshe visited Oba’s hotel room
\nwith an envelope containing a sum of N50,000 as “gift” from her boss,
\nUmoru, and urged him to return to Abuja.<\/p>\n
The auditor according to Obilo, sensed danger and returned to Abuja and
\nreported the situation to the head of JAMB’s Audit Unit, James Ochijele,
\nwho ordered that the N50,000 “gift” be paid into the Board’s account.<\/p>\n
Ochijele had to replace Oba with the witness (Obilo) for the same
\nassignment in the Makurdi office. While examining the books of accounts
\nin the Makurdi Office, Obilo said he discovered a shortfall in the
\nproceeds from the sales of e-facility cards and change of course forms
\nto the tune of N35,480,000, which were not remitted to the Board’s
\naccount.<\/p>\n
Asked for explanation, Chieshe began to cry as she gave all manners of
\njustifications for the disappearance\u00a0 of the money, including a tale
\nthat a mystery snake had been swallowing the money in Umoru’s office,
\neven as it was kept in a safe.<\/p>\n
In another incredible story, she claimed that a mermaid appeared to her
\nin her bedroom to attack her at various times and that her house maid is
\na witch.<\/p>\n
Real trouble started for Umoru and Chieshe with the coming on board of
\nProfessor Ishaq Oloyede as JAMB’s registrar, who set up a reconciliation
\ncommittee to look into the accounts of all the state offices. This
\ncommittee unearthed monumental stealing.
\nWith no objections from counsel to the defendants, the prosecution
\ntendered the report of the reconciliation committee and its summary,
\nwhich Justice Affen admitted in evidence.<\/p>\n
Under cross-examination by Mark Fees, counsel to Chieshe, Obilo said
\neach of the e-facility cards, change of course forms and other cards are
\nsold at N1000 per unit, disclosing that Umoru was the coordinator of the
\nsales at that time in his capacity as the chief accounting officer of
\nthe Board’s Makurdi Office and had the record of every cards that were
\ndelivered to the office and the proceeds realised from the sales.<\/p>\n
Responding to Chieshe’s claim that she made some payments into the
\nBoard’s account but has lost the tellers, the witness revealed that the
\nbank statements which were traced for confirmation of the said payments
\ndid not establish any of such payments as claimed by the second
\ndefendant .<\/p>\n
The trial judge adjourned the matter to January 21, 2020, for
\ncontinuation trial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fresh details have emerged as to how the duo of Samuel Saleh Umoru, chief accounting officer of the Makurdi Zonal Office of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":69526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n