An Ado-Ekiti Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday sentenced a 40-year-old man, Adedeji Ogunleye, to five years imprisonment with hard labour for stealing and fraud.
The convict was arraigned before Magistrate Olatomiwa Daramola on January 9, 2023, on a two-count charge of stealing and fraud.
Delivering his judgement, the magistrate said: “This court is fortified with the decision, in the case of Maina vs Federal Republic of Nigeria (2022) LPELR-58942 (CA), to deliver this judgement in the absence of the defendant.”
Daramola continued, saying: “I find the defendant guilty, and I convict him accordingly. The convict is hereby sentenced to five years imprisonment with hard labour, or an option of restitution, in the sum of N17.5 million, in favour of ABUAD Bookshop, being the amount this court found to have been stolen by the defendant, in lieu of imprisonment.
“All security agencies are hereby put on alert to apprehend the fugitive wherever and whenever sighted, to serve his term of imprisonment.”
The police prosecutor, Inspector Elijah Adejare, had said that the defendant committed the offence between 2019 and 2022 at ABUAD Bookshop, located along Afe Babalola Way, in Ado-Ekiti.
Adejare said the convict stole and fraudulently obtained the sum of N17.5 million, which was the money accrued from sales of books at the bookshop, and converted it to his personal use, knowing fully well that it is the property of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, ABUAD.
He said the offences contravened Sections 302 and 329 (3) of the Criminal Law of Ekiti State, 2021.
In his testimony before the court, one of the auditors who testified before the court said that Adedeji Ogunleye was employed in the year 2019, towards the end of June 2022.
“We came on invitation to audit him, and during the process, the team discovered sharp practices in his transactions and records; in addition, the money in the bank and books in stock were not commensurate.
“He was issued a query and later handed over to the police for further investigation and his eventual arraignment,” he concluded.
To prove his case, the prosecutor called four witnesses, and tendered auditors’ statements and reports, bookshop receipts and ABUAD bin card, among others as exhibits.
He said the convict, who was granted bail at arraignment, jumped the bail, while all efforts made to prove his innocence before the court, proved abortive.
Court sentences former ABUAD bookshop staff to 5 years in jail