ICPC sues NUT treasurer, contractors for alleged theft of N495.8m

• Court begins trial of ‘ghost worker’ over alleged N11m fraud

The Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has sued the Treasurer of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), Abuja Municipal, Mr. Percy Ndam for allegedly stealing N495.8 million belonging to the union.

Ndam is facing a five-count charge before Justice Adegbola Adeniyi of the Federal Capital High Court 20, Apo, Abuja. He was accused of conspiring with two contractors, Frank Igbinedion and Uche Nwedi, to convert N495, 828, 000 meant for NUT Housing Loan Scheme to personal use.

The counsel to the ICPC, Mr. Raheem Adesina, told the court that Ndam and his associates committed the crime from November 2011 to October 2015.

In one instance, the court heard that Ndam allegedly stole the sum of N296 million of the union’s money and converted N221 million from its operational account to personal use.

He was further accused of receiving another N75.2 million belonging to the same union from Isaac Sanda, who is the Managing Director of Contemporary Archivision Ltd, a company involved in the housing scheme.

The court was also told that Igbinedion and Saframic Homes Ltd were paid N113.9 million in January 2012 for the processing of title documents and compensation for the land.

The court heard that he allegedly embezzled N93, 899 million of the money under the pretext of paying an unspecified task force, reprocessing of the project’s Technical Drawing Plans (TDP) and payment of N50 million to Kenia Integrated Ltd, for the processing of title documents.

On their own part, Nwedi and NCR & Associates Ltd were accused of converting N56.7 million under the pretext of spending it on Land Offer Letters, TDP and other payment to a consultant.

All the accused persons pleaded not guilty to the charges and were granted bail, while the matter was adjourned till October 31st and November 1st, 2017 for hearing.

Meanwhile, the N11million trial-within-trial preferred against Dairo Samson, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) began on September 21, 2017.

Samson was accused of defrauding the Federal Government by using fictitious names and account numbers to collect salaries from the Federal Ministry of Finance, Federal Ministry of Works, and the National Population Commission.

The case is before Justice A.R. Mohammed of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, Jabi, Abuja. The trial would continue on October 23, 2017.