The Provost of the Federal College of Horticulture, Dadin-Kowa in Gombe state was on Wednesday arraigned before a Federal High Court in Gombe over alleged conspiracy and fraud.
The provost, Professor Fatima Sawa alongside Abdurrashid Abubakar and Umar Modibbo, the college’s bursar and expenditure officer respectively, were dragged before the court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over alleged misappropriation of N52.4 million.
According to the EFCC, the accused persons conspired among themselves and used their position as principal officers of the college to transfer the said amount domiciled in the college’s account to a private account.
EFCC counsel, Barrister Ndeh Godspower, told the court that the trio used the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) payment platform without justification, to transfer the sum of N52,444,097 to one company called Freeman ICT Hub in one day.
Barrister Godspower further informed the court that investigation carried out by the commission revealed that the company does not deserve to receive that payment, as they didn’t render any service to the institution.
However, all the defendants pleaded not guilty to the four-count charge bordering on conspiracy, concealment of illicit origin of funds and fraud labelled against them.
In view of their plea, the prosecution counsel applied for new date for trial and requested that the defendants be remanded in prison custody.
However, the presiding judge Justice Nehizena Idemudia Afolabi granted the accused persons bail as applied by their counsels and adjourned the case to January 17, 2019 for hearing.
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