Witness reveals how two JAMB officials diverted board’s N35.5m

An investigator with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Stanley Ani, at the resumed hearing yesterday of the case involving Samuel Umoru and Philomena Chieshe, revealed how the two officials of the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) diverted N35.48 million belonging to the exam body.

While Umoru was the board’s zonal coordinator, Chiese was the revenue officer. They are standing trial before Justice Peter Affen of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court sitting in Maitama, Abuja, for allegedly diverting the above sum.

Ani told the court that Umoru, at various times, instructed Chieshe to pay cash into his bank account as a loan.

In his examination-in-chief led by Ekele Iheanacho, the witness, who led the team of investigators in the case, told the court that Chieshe (the second defendant) had confessed that Umoru (the first defendant) instructed her to pay monies into his personal account.

“Chieshe submitted copies of tellers showing where she deposited monies into Umoru’s account on his instruction and other documents showing collection of ‘IOU’ by the first defendant from the proceeds of sales of e-facility cards,” the witness revealed.

He further told the court that details of Chieshe’s two bank statements revealed that out of the N29,034,253.72 inflow that her Zenith Bank account received between January 2014 and February 2017, only N2,094,433.72 were legitimate earnings that came in from JAMB in terms of salary, allowances and dividends from the cooperative society.

Ani then said that N26,939,820 was paid into the account by agents contracted by Chieshe to sell e-facility cards on her behalf.

While also giving the analysis of the second defendant’s EcoBank account statement, the witness said that N1,768,480 was paid into the account by various agents who sold the e-facility cards on her behalf.

He further revealed that no transfer was made to JAMB’s revenue account as remittance; instead almost all the monies were withdrawn through Automated Teller Machine (ATM).

Justice Affen adjourned the matter till June 1, 2020 for continuation of trial.