The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arraigned six officials of the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital Zaria before Justice M. M. Ladan of Kaduna State High Court sitting in Zaria on 22 counts bordering on conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, theft, cheating, misappropriation and fraudulent diversion of bank loan
The accused officials include: Kabuk Dauda Chairman, Nuruddeen Mohammed Secretary, Cecelia Jatau Treasurer, Abdulrazak Garba and Abdulkadir B Danyaro of the Non Academic Staff Union, ABUTH Multipurpose Co-operative Society, Zaria.
The case was reported to the EFCC by one Prof Lawal Khalid, Chief Medical Director of ABUTH, against the management of the Multipurpose Cooperative Society of the Non Academic Staff Union of the institution.
The petitioner alleged that, sometime in 2013, First City Monument Bank, Zaria branch, granted a N185m loan to Multipurpose Cooperative Society of NASU ABUTH, Zaria and the fund was later disbursed by the society to the beneficiaries for subsequent repayment in full with interest within 24 months.
The petitioner added that the Management of ABUTH guaranteed only the deduction from the beneficiaries’ salary for the monthly repayment and remittance to the society’s account at the bank which will enable FCMB to recover its money.
The petitioner also stated that following complaint of over-deduction of repayment by some beneficiaries, an internal investigation was conducted which discovered that N27, 211, 486.66 could not be accounted for. It was further alleged that, ABUTH Management constituted an Ad-hoc committee on the issue which recommended that the sum of N25, 5387, 798.60 should be recovered from the officials of the society.
The accused were arrested by the EFCC, and investigation later revealed that, the sum of N3, 995, 104.17 was supposed to be repaid on monthly basis by the Management of ABUTH to FCMB, but the accused conspired among themselves to be remitting N4, 834,076, and converted the difference to their personal use.
One of the charges read “That you sometimes between May, 2013 and March 2014 at Zaria within the Judicial Division of the High Court of Kaduna State , while being in the management of the NASU Cooperative society and its bank account with First City Monument Bank obtained two loan facilities of N85, 292, 000.00 and N100, 000, 000.00 but with intent to defraud, conspired among yourselves to do an illegal act to wit; Criminal Breach of Trust in the disbursement and pricing of the loan by increasing the interest rates in order to gain a monetary advantage to yourselves and cause lost to the beneficiary members and thereby committed an offence contrary to section 96 of the Penal Code Law and punishable under section 97 of the same Law”.
All the accused pleaded not guilty to the charges against them. In view of the above, the prosecution counsel Samuel Chime urged the Court to fix a date for hearing. He also added that, all the witnesses for this trial were ready.
Justice Ladan granted N10m bail to each of the accused and two reliable sureties for each in like sum with landed property within the jurisdiction of the court. The case was adjourned til April 12, 2016 for trial.
