The EFCC had received from one Alhaja Oladoja Abike that 46-year-old Akerele collected the amount of money from her in installments for the purpose of supplying four truckloads of rice
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ibadan Zonal Office on Monday, arraigned one Mary Maisirat Akerele on five counts bordering on stealing thirty-five million five hundred and twenty thousand naira (N35,520,000:00).
Akerele was arraigned before Justice Abiodun Akinyemi of the Ogun State High Court 4, Abeokuta.
The EFCC had received from one Alhaja Oladoja Abike that 46-year-old Akerele collected the amount of money from her in installments for the purpose of supplying four truckloads of rice from a rice milling company at Bida, Niger State.
The petition said Akerele, who resides in the Aseko area of Idiroko, Ogun State, diverted the funds.
One of the charge reads: "That you, Mary Masirat Akerele (trading under the name and style of Goodness of Jesus Global Ventures) on or about the 19th day of September, 2018 at Abeokuta within the Abeokuta Judicial Division of the Honourable Court, fraudulently converted to your own use the sum of eleven million naira (N11, 000,000.00) only property of Fausia Abike Oladoja and thereby committed an offence of stealing contrary to Section 390(9) of the Criminal Code, Cap. 30, laws of Ogun State, 2006.”
The defendant pleaded “not guilty” when the charge was read to her.
Counsel for the defendant, H. A. Omikunle, made an oral application for his client’s bail. However, Shamsuddeen Bashir, counsel for the EFCC, opposed the application due to the defendant's failure to keep to the terms of the administrative bail earlier granted to her.
Justice Akinyemi adjourned the case till March 4 for determination of the bail application and ordered that the defendant should be remanded at the Nigerian Correctional Centre, Ibara, Abeokuta.