EFCC Arraigns Former Assistant Police Commissioner, 3 Others For Diverting N1.3 billion Belonging To Police

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has charged six suspects, including two firms, before the Lagos State Special Offences Court in Ikeja for allegedly diverting N1,301,334,108 from the coffers of the Nigeria Police Force.

The defendants, who were charged before Justice Sherifat Solebo, include Olumide Odumosu, Sule Tegina, Helen Nwafor and Okpalugo Ifeoma. Others are Olu Osmond Nigeria Limited and Jemmy Yus Investment Nigeria Limited. They are facing 14 counts.

In the charge, marked Temp/39698/2018, the EFCC alleged that the defendants stole the N1.3bn from the coffers of the Nigeria Police Force and fraudulently converted it to their own between 2013 and 2014.

According to the anti-graft agency, the defendants conspired with one Ogbadu Joseph and one Hassan Muhammed, who were said to be at large.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Lagos Zonal office, on Wednesday, November 7, 2018 arraigned the  four suspected fraudsters before Justice Sherifat Solebo of the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos on a 14-count charge bordering on felony and stealing to the tune of N1 ,301, 334, 108.00( One Billion, Three Hundred and One Million, Three Hundred and Thirty-four Thousand, One Hundred and Eight Naira).

The suspects are: Ifeoma Okpalugo, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, ACP, (retd.), Olumide Odumosu, Suleiman Yusuf Tegina and Helen Nwafor.

The suspects were charged alongside Yus Investment Nigeria Limited and Olivia Osmond Nigeria Limited for allegedly diverting the sum of N1,301, 334, 108.00 belonging to the Nigeria Police Force, NPF, to their personal use.

One of the counts reads: “That you, Ogbadu Joseph (Now at Large), Hassan Paiko Muhammed (now at Large), Sule Yusuf Tegina, Olumide Odumosu, Helen Nwafor, Okpalugo Ifeoma, Olu Osmond Nigeria Limited and Jemmy Yus Investment Nigeria Limited, sometime in 2013 in Nigeria, within the jurisdiction of this honourable Court, conspired amongst yourselves to commit felony, to wit: stealing of the sum of N1, 301, 334, 108.00 (One Billion, Three Hundred and One Million, Three Hundred and Thirty-four Thousand, One Hundred and Eight Naira) property of the Nigeria Police Force.”

However, the scheduled arraignment could not go on today, as one of the suspects, Nwafor, claimed she did not understand English.

When the matter was called, Nwafor told the court that she would need someone to interprete the charges preferred against her by the Commission in her native language, Igbo.

Consequently, Justice Solebo adjourned the matter to November 7, 2018 and ordered the defendants to be remanded in prison custody pending their arraignment