EFCC spokesman, Femi Babafemi, who confirmed the prosecution of Mrs. Grace Iroro in a statement in Abuja yesterday, said the suspect alongside two other accomplices were arraigned before Justice Mufutau Olokooba of the Lagos High Court, Ikeja, on a five-count charge bordering on conspiracy, forgery, uttering and attempt to obtain money by false pretences.
The other accused persons, the statement disclosed are Messrs Ayo Disu and Uzor Nnaji.
Justice Olokooba after taking the pleas of the accused persons ordered them remanded in prison custody till July 8 when their case would come up for further hearing.
According to the EFCC, Mrs. Iroro who had earlier been under the anti-graft agency custody had jumped bail and has evaded arrest until she was finally nabbed somewhere in Itire area of Lagos last week.
The accused persons were first arrested at the premises of a new generation bank while trying to cash a cheque of N17million purportedly for the purchase of a plot of land at Lekki.
According to the EFCC, Madam Iroro and other members of her syndicate impersonated one Mr. Samuel Adetobi Sosanya, the rightful owner of Plot 2, Block 71, Lekki Peninsula residential scheme 1 and attempted to sell the land to a top official of a new generation bank in Victoria Island.
But the deal went awry when the banker mentioned the transaction to one of his friends as he was about to pay the money. His friend told him that he had just been duped over the same property. At this juncture, the banker alerted the EFCC. And as the accused persons entered the bank to cash the cheque they were arrested.
Upon arrest, they confessed that they actually forged the Certificate of Occupancy presented to the prospective buyer of the property in order to convince him that the transaction was genuine. While Disu acted as Mr Sosanya, Madam Iroro posed as Mrs Sosanya. She claimed that she was promised five per cent of the N17million as reward for the role she played, while Uzor procured the fake certificate of occupancy.
