Ex-NSITF GM, Adebayo Aderibigbe
By Our Reporter
A former General Manager and Head of Legal Services of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund, NSITF, Sir Adebayo Aderibigbe and one Ogundele Mura Yisa-Yemi have been arraigned in court for alleged N60 million fraud.
They were arraigned on Wednesday by Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), before Justice O. A. Musa of the Federal Capital Territory High Court in Abuja.
According to Wilson Uwajaren, a statement by EFCC’s Head of Media and Publicity, Aderibigbe and Yisa-Yemi, a principal partner at M. Y. Ogundele & Co Legal Practitioners, were arraigned on three counts bordering on conspiracy and obtaining the sum of N60,400,000 (Sixty Million and Four Hundred Thousand Naira) by false pretence.
In November 2017, EFCC also arraigned Aderibigbe alongside Umar Munir Abubakar, Henry Ekhasomi Sambo, Chief Richard U. Uche and Aderemi Adegboyega before Justice Silvanus Orji of the Federal Capital Territory High Court in Apo, Abuja, on 26 counts bordering on conspiracy, abuse of office and illegal diversion of public funds.
A whistleblower had petitioned the EFCC, accusing the suspects of abusing their positions to divert public funds running into billions of naira.
Acting on the petition, EFCC operatives investigated the allegations and after thorough investigations were carried out, it was revealed that between 2012 and 2015, they received kickbacks in dollars in the discharge of their duties.
According to the EFCC, they also conspired to divert about N18 billion said to be a contribution from the Nigerian government as take-off grants and Employees Compensation Scheme (ECS) for Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
The said money was diverted into personal accounts by an e-payment mandate.
