A project manager with a construction company, Mr Olowe Joseph Adeoye, was on Thursday arraigned before an Igbosere Chief Magistrate Court, Lagos, for alleged stealing of construction materials valued at N378 million from a construction site.
The 42-year-old manager was arraigned by men of the Police Force Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Department (CIID) Annex, Alagbon-Ikoyi, Lagos, before Magistrate K. K. Awoyinka on charges of conspiracy and stealing.
According to the Legal Officer in the CIID, Barrister Morufu Animashaun, Adeoye conspired with some other persons still at large sometime in 2015 to steal the construction materials at a housing project at Ilubirin, Lagos.
The materials included a hydraulic rig, 600 pile drivers and a six-tonne hammer, property of Howard Roark Construction Company Limited, where the defendant last worked as the project manager.
Adeoye, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Following his not-guilty plea, Animashaun asked the court for a trial date, while also urging it to remand the defendant in prison custody till the determination of the charge against him.
But counsel to the defendant, O. A. Oyekan, in his oral application, urged the court to admit his client to bail in the most liberal terms, arguing that the charges against Adeoye were bailable while noting that he was a first-time offender who did not have a criminal record.
Responding to the bail application, the prosecutor said that though granting bail was at the court’s discretion, granting Adeoye bail would jeopardize police investigation and affect the arrest of others involved in the alleged crime.
Ruling on the bail application, Magistrate Awoyinka admitted the defendant to bail in the sum of N500,000, with two sureties in the same sum.
The magistrate adjourned the case till September 2, 2019 for commencement of trial.
