The Ilorin Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Wednesday, arraigned a lawyer, Temidayo Eseyin, for allegedly defrauding the Landmark University, Omu-Aran, Kwara State, to the tune of N19.3 million.
Eseyin, a former member of the Disciplinary Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association, Ilorin Branch, was arraigned before Justice Funsho Lawal of the Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin on four counts bordering on dishonest misappropriation of funds belonging to the university.
In a petition to the EFCC, Eseyin, whilst being a counsel to the university, was alleged to have had access to its property, title documents and funds and had allegedly been cheating, defrauding, misappropriating and short-changing his client.
In one of his alleged atrocities, the defendant, between 2014 and 2022, managed a property known as the Old Midland Building situated along Emir’s/Obbo Road, Ilorin, which belonged to the Landmark University, and collected rent on the property but could not produce the money paid when asked.
The petitioner also alleged that Eseyin attempted to sell the property without instructions from the university and the anti-graft agency was petitioned.
The charge read in part: “That you, Temidayo Eseyin, sometime in 2021, in Ilorin, Kwara State, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, dishonestly misappropriated N6,064,000 representing payment of rent on a property known as the Old Midland Building belonging to the Landmark University and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 308 of the Penal Code Law and Punishable under Section 309 of the same law”.
The defendant pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Following his plea, the counsel to the EFCC, Rashidat Alao, urged the court to fix a date for trial and prayed the court remand the defendant in the custody of the Nigerian Correctional Centre pending trial.
However, Eseyin’s lawyer, Femi Makinde, moved an application for the bail of the defendant.
He prayed the court to admit his client to bail pending trial.
Justice Lawal, while ruling on the application, admitted the defendant to bail in the sum of N10 million with two sureties in the sum of N5 million each.
The judge ordered that the sureties must have landed property within the jurisdiction of the court.
The judge, while adjourning the case to a date which would be communicated to the parties, ordered that the defendant should be remanded in the custody of the EFCC pending the perfection of his bail conditions.
However, in a telephone conversation with our correspondent, an official from the Media and Publicity Unit of the EFCC in Ilorin, who spoke on behalf of the spokesperson for the anti-graft agency, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren said that other charges preferred against Eseyin contained other amounts that summed up the total of N19.3 million.
