419: Oyo top civil servant bags 20 years (AND UNCLE BODE GETS A WARNING SENTENCE)


The world, literally crumbled for an Oyo State Senior civil servant and mother, Helen Olaoye, on Tuesday as she bagged 20 years jail term for fraudulently collecting N4million under false pretence.

Justice Morenike Obadina of the Lagos High Court, sitting in Ikeja, handed down the sentence to the Director in the Oyo State Ministry of Special Duties after finding her guilty on two of the three-count charges preferred against her by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The convict who has spent 27 years in the civil service will, however, spend 10 years in custody as her sentence of 10 years each on each of the two-count charge for which she was convicted would run concurrently.

Helen Olaoye was arraigned in August 2005 by EFCC for allegedly defrauding one Segun Olorunfunmi and Yemi Adepoju of East Atlantic Business Support services of the sum of N4 million on the false pretence that the money was for part-payment for security deposit/contract guarantee in respect of an information technology project to be financed by the Department for International Development (DID).
After a careful evaluation of the arguments of both the prosecution and the defence, Justice Obadina held that Olaoye was the initiator and mastermind of the scam.

According to the court, contrary to the claim of the convict that she acted in concert with Oyo State Government, she acted out of her own volition without any link to the State as she was disowned in a letter sent to EFCC during investigations of the matter.

According to the trial judge, the purported DID used to hoodwink the victims was a ruse and non-existent but merely used as cover to perpetrate the crime under the guise of embarking on E-Government project in Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Ekiti, Ondo, Kwara and Kogi States.

While the court held that a committee was set up for the purpose of similar projects in Oyo State, Olaoye suggested the hoax deal through which she collected N4 million from the unsuspecting victims.
“She is a director and senior civil servant with experience with international agencies. She suggested the project to the committee. She invested her personal fund on the project. All the documents relating to the project were recovered in her private residence,” the court held.

Justice Obadina held that her latter testimonies in her evidence-in-chief contained a lot of after thoughts as she did not include them in her statement to the EFCC when the matter was fresh in her memory.
Consequently, the court found her guilty of acting in concert with one Dr. E. Balogun to perpetrate the crime.