Two persons arraigned for N18.3m theft
Two persons were on
Wednesday arraigned before the Oyo State Magistrate’s Court in Iyaganku,
Ibadan for two counts of conspiracy and stealing of money belonging to
Obat Oil and Petroleum.
The accused persons, Mr.
Akinolu Quadri and Toyese Badmus, were said to have mismanaged
N18,361,500 being the rent collected on the company’s property at Gbagi
market, Ibadan between October 2009 and May 2012.
The complainant, the
Olugbo of Ugboland in Ilaje Local Government area of Ondo State, Oba
Obateru Akinruntan, (owner of Obat Oil and Petroleum), alleged that the
duo conspired to defraud him and his company.
The monarch, in case
number MI/1048/2012, alleged that Quadri, who is the Managing Consultant
of Roots Property, Ibadan, was appointed as a consultant to manage the
company’s estate through a letter dated October 2, 2009.
Kunle Ogunsanya, who
represented the monarch, said, “The company wrote the consultant a
letter dated October 14, 2009, directing him to pay the rent collected
on all the shops into Equitorial Trust Bank account, Gbagi, Ibadan.
Unknown to us the consultant had been mismanaging the rent collected
with the connivance of Badmus, the Chairman of tenants association of
the said property.
“The fraud was detected
in May this year when the company chairman (the monarch) directed me to
collect the bank’s statement to know the total rent collected.”
He said it was discovered that there was fraud on the rent.
According to him, although N14m was collected between October 2009 and December 2011, only N2.3m was deposited in the account.
Obisanya said when
investigated, Badmus (the second accused person) claimed that the
consultant instructed him to collect rent from the tenants with an
instruction that he should lodge 60per cent of the rent to the bank
(with the remaining 40per cent paid to Quadri).
The accused persons, however, asked the
court to restrain Obateru from inviting the media to cover the
proceedings on the grounds that they were intimidated by their presence.
