By Our Reporter
The sacked Chief Executive Officer of OSUN DEFENDER, a community newspaper in the State of Osun, Mr. Ayo Akinola has been arrested by the police.
Akinola was accused of defrauding OSUN DEFENDER of the sum of N22.6m.
He was sacked on December 10, 2019, after an emergency meeting of the Board of Directors of the company.
Akinola, who owns a magazine outfit, was ‘separated’ from the company on account of ‘conflicts of interest’ and ‘sabotage’.
He also allegedly diverted the sum of N22.6m, meant for the company to his own private company’s account.
Our reporter has it on authoritative account that the N22.6m was meant to be paid into OSUN DEFENDER’s account by an agency for the subscription of the newspaper.
The disengaged Akinola, in a letter sent to the Ministry’s Accountant on June 14, 2019, fraudulently directed him to pay the money into DOLAM Ultimate Venture’s account with a first generation bank.
According to sources in the ministry, Akinola allegedly forged the signature of the former Administrative Manager of OSUN DEFENDER, Mr. Murtala Agboola in the process of the alleged fraud.
Akinola, in the alleged forgery, misspelled Agboola’s first name as ‘Muritala’ against ‘Murtala’, being the correct spelling used by the owner.
It was said that some officials of the ministry were allegedly compromised by Akinola in his bid to perpetrate the fraud.
Following a petition to the police, Akinola was arrested in his office around Fakunle area of Osogbo on Wednesday. He was later released on administrative bail same day.
