An accountant with a private school in Lagos, Elizabeth Ikechukwu, has been brought before an Ikeja Magistrate’s Court for allegedly converting N210,000 fees paid by pupils to her own use.
The police arraigned her on two counts bordering on stealing after she reportedly confessed to the crime.
It was learnt that the 26-year-old defendant joined the school – St. Joseph Nursery and Primary School, Agege – in 2014, and was collecting fees and depositing same at a Wema Bank branch on behalf of the school.
She was said to have forged the stamp of the bank and placed it on deposit slips, under the pretext that the money had been remitted into the school’s bank account.
PUNCH Metro gathered that the fraud was discovered late May during the auditing of the school’s financial records.
The case was reported at the Isokoko Police Division and Ikechukwu was arrested.
The Delta State indigene reportedly owned up to the crime, saying she used the money to take care of her mother who was admitted to a hospital.
She was arraigned by a police prosecutor, Inspector Clifford Ogu, who told the court that the offence contravened sections 285 (2) and 363 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.
The charge read in part, “That you, Elizabeth Ikechukwu, on May 19, 2016, at about 12.55pm, at St. Joseph Nursery and Primary School situated at Idi-Mangoro, Agege, Lagos, in the Ikeja Magistraterial District did forge Wema Bank Plc stamp, purporting it to be original of N210,000 property of the school.”
The defendant, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge, and elected summary trial.
The Chief Magistrate, T. Akanni, granted her bail in the sum of N100,000 with two sureties in like sum. He added that the sureties must present evidence of tax payments to the court.
The case was adjourned till June 8, 2016.
Culled from PUNCH.
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