Crime

How Female NSCDC Official Allegedly Duped Job Seekers N12.4m

ByKazeem Badmus

PublishedJuly 4, 2024

An official of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Mrs Tosin Olagunju, has been remanded in Suleja prison, Niger State, for obtaining N12.4m from job seekers under false pretence, with the promise that she could secure them employment.

Olagunju was remanded by a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Wednesday.

She, however, pleaded not guilty to the four counts slammed against her for scamming job seekers.

In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CR/183/2024, filed in the name of the Inspector General of Police, Olagunju was accused of the following:

Count one of the charges read: “sometime between 2010 and 2023, you, Tosin Comfort Olagunji, obtained by false pretence and with intent to defraud Nigerians, including Billi Haruna Bwala, the sum of N12,400,000.00 in the pretence that you have the capacity of securing them employment with the Nigeria Security & Civil Defence Corps and thereby defrauding them of N12, 400,000.00 and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 1(1)© of the Advance Free Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006.

Count two reads: “That you Olagunju Comfort (f) of Karu Site, Abuja, sometime between 2020 and 2023 within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, did conspire with others to commit an office to wit: criminal conspiracy thereby commit an offence punishable under Section 97(1) of the Panel Code Act, 2004.”

In count three, she was alleged to have, between 2020 and 2023, “being in any manner entrusted with services of securing employment with Nigeria Security & Civil Defence Corps for Nigerians and dishonestly convert the sum of N12, 400,000.00 to your own use in violation of the direction of law prescribing the mode in which such trust is to be discharged and thereby commit an offence contrary to Section 311 and punishable under Section 312 of the Penal Code Act 2004.”

Count four reads: “That you, Olagunju Comfort, (F) of Karu Site, Abuja sometime between 2010 and 2023 fraudulently and dishonestly induced some Nigerians to part with the sum of N12,400,000.00 and thereby cheating them of the said sum and causing damage to them and thereby commit an offence contrary to Section 320 and punishable under Section 322 of the Penal Code Act 2004”.

The prosecuting lawyer, Princewill Eke, after the plea of the defendant, applied for a date for the commencement of trial.

The defence lawyer, M. A. Oloniruka, however, informed the court that he had filed a bail application shortly before the court commenced sitting.

The application was however not in the court’s file and was on this note, not ripe for hearing.

Oloniruka, being informed of the situation of his application, sought to apply orally for his client’s bail.

Justice Nyako however rejected the defence lawyer’s request to be allowed to apply orally for bail, noting that the court is a court of record hence all applications must be formal and in writing.

Nyako ordered that Olagunju be remanded in prison pending the hearing of her bail application scheduled for October 9.

“This matter is adjourned till October 9 for trial. The defendant should be remanded in Suleja correctional centre,” she said.