Nigeria: Lawyer arrested for stealing N19.3 million from Kwara University
By Ahmad Hadizat Omayoza, Mamos Nigeria
On Wednesday, a lawyer named Temidayo Eseyin was arraigned by the Ilorin Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for allegedly defrauding the Landmark University in Omu-Aran, Kwara State, of N19.3 million.
On four counts bordering on dishonest misappropriation of university funds, 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.
In a petition to the EFCC, Eseyin was accused of cheating, defrauding, misappropriating, and shortchanging his client while serving as the university’s counsel and having access to the property, title documents, and funds of the university.
In one of his alleged crimes, the defendant managed a Landmark University property known as the Old Midland Building along Emir’s/Obbo Road in Ilorin from 2014 to 2022. He collected rent from the property but was unable to provide the requested funds.
The anti-graft agency was also petitioned, claiming that Eseyin attempted to sell the property without permission from the university.
“That you, Temidayo Eseyin, dishonestly misappropriated N6,064,000 representing payment of rent on 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,” according to a portion of the charge, “that you, Temidayo Eseyin, sometime in 2021, in Ilorin, Kwara State, within
The defendant denied the charge in his or her plea.
Following his plea, the EFCC’s attorney, Rashidat Alao, pleaded with the court to set a date for the trial and to remand the defendant in the custody of the Nigerian Correctional Centre until the trial. EFCC warns skit makers and others against using uniforms and symbols without permission.
However, Eseyin’s attorney, Femi Makinde, requested that the defendant be granted bail.
He pleaded with the judge to grant his client bail until the trial.
While deciding on the application, Justice Lawal granted the defendant bail in the amount of N10 million with two sureties in the amount of N5 million each.
The sureties were required to have landed on property within the court’s jurisdiction, according to the judge’s order.
The defendant was ordered to be remanded in the custody of the EFCC until his bail conditions were perfected, and the judge adjourned the case until a date that would be communicated to the parties.
However, in a telephone conversation with our correspondent, a representative of the EFCC’s Media and Publicity Unit in Ilorin, speaking on behalf of Wilson Uwujaren, the agency’s spokesperson, stated that other charges preferred against Eseyin contained additional sums totaling N19.3 million.
