An Oyo State High Court has convicted one Mutiat Omobola Adio, for stealing N22.3 million meant for judicial officers’ Cooperative society in the state.
Mrs. Adio was charged to court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Ibadan zonal office, on one count of stealing in a case preferred against her.
In a statement on Friday by the anti-graft agency’s spokesman, Tony Orilade, “this is the second time in less than two years that the former top government official would earn jail term for fraud-related offences.”
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In the latest conviction, Justice Muniru Olagunju found Mrs. Adio, a Chief Magistrate in the state, guilty of the charge preferred against her.
The statement added that the convict was “accused of stealing a sum of N22,375,913 (Twenty Two Million, Three Hundred and Seventy-Five Thousand, Nine Hundred and Thirteen Naira), from Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, an offence that runs contrary to section 390(11) of Criminal Code, Cap.38, Law of Oyo State.”
The former government official was said to have “abused her office as the secretary of a Cooperative Society of the Oyo State Judicial Officers by inflating the total sum approved for loan facilities granted her members by GTBank and converting the difference to personal use.
“She was said to be the facilitator of the loan which totaled about N90 million.”
It also revealed that earlier on May 18, 2018; she was “sentenced to seven years imprisonment for obtaining under false pretense a sum of N9.2 million from one Abiodun Olonade, a Nigerian resident in Ireland.
“The sentencing was without an option of fine,” it added.
In 2017 when she was first arraigned, the statement said Mrs. Adio pleaded “not guilty”, which necessitated the commencement of her trial.
After listening to arguments from the parties, Justice Olagunju declared her guilty of the offence and sentenced her to five years in prison without an option of fine.
She was also ordered to pay back the sum of N20, 935,000 to GTBank.
