Three employees of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) have been apprehended by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The three members of staff were arrested on Tuesday, August 2, 2016, over alleged fraud.
One of them, Christy Olabode, a level six officer of the Accounts Department of FAAN, was accused of stealing N100 million from the agency.
Her younger brother identified as Abdul-Shehu Obaze was also nabbed by the EFCC and he works in the Commercial Department of FAAN in Ilorin, Kwara State, while the third arrested was Dominic Ojo, an IT officer at FAAN Headquarters, Lagos.
Olabode was arrest following an anonymous petition, which indicated that she allegedly diverted the said sum, by inserting names of non-FAAN staff into its payroll. She was accused of doing this with the help of her brother, Obaze.
Obaze was found to have maintained not less than eight accounts in seven new generation banks, which were used to receive the funds for onward distribution to “several high ranking officers within the FAAN”.
The funds were being paid into his various bank accounts with the narrative, “Furniture Allowance”. However, while allowance for FAAN’s furniture is usually paid once in three years, Obaze received the “allowance” several times within a year.
Investigations carried out by the EFCC revealed that the fraud had gone on since 2013. It unearthed a payroll with names of many dead, retired and disengaged staff of FAAN listed against Obaze’s different bank accounts.
Upon interrogation, Obaze, a level nine officer, confessed that other FAAN officials were involved in the massive fraud, including Olabode’s husband who works in the Human Resources department of FAAN.
Olabode and Ojo currently enjoy administrative bail, while Obaze remains in EFCC custody. They would be charged to court as soon as investigations are concluded.
Adedapo Adesanya