EFCC to arraign five jamb official

The Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission is set to arraign some
officials for allegedly diverting nearly
N100 m belonging to the Joint
Admissions and Matriculation Board .
Among the officials to be arraigned is
Philomina Chieshe of the Makurdi office
of JAMB who claimed that a snake
swallowed N36m which was part of the
proceeds of the sale of scratch cards .
Also to be arraigned is her coordinator ,
Mr . Samuel Umoru , who, according to
Chieshe, instructed her to divert the
funds.
Others to be arraigned include Tanko
Labaran, the clerk in Nasarawa State
office of JAMB who could not account
for scratch cards worth N23m ; and the
officer in charge of the Kano office of
the board , Yakubu Jakada , for his
inability to account for e- facilities cards
valued at N20m sold through an agent
in one of the banks .
Some officials of the Gombe office are
also expected to be arraigned .
A source at the EFCC said, “ We have
concluded investigations into the
officials and they will be arraigned very
soon .”
The EFCC source said Chieshe, who is a
clerk in the Makurdi office of JAMB,
revealed that the coordinator usually
asked her to withdraw proceeds of the
sale of the cards from her account in
two banks .
The source explained that before the
introduction of Treasury Single
Accounts, the practice was that JAMB
officials kept the proceeds of the sale of
cards in unauthorised bank accounts
which led to the loss of billions of
naira .
In the statement she made to the EFCC
under oath , Chieshe said, “ I withdrew
this money (from the bank and) the
coordinator used it for the office and
some time for himself (sic ).”
She claimed that she had been warning
her supervisor that it was improper to
spend the (JAMB) money on
miscellaneous expenses in the office or
for private purposes but that he would
not listen .
The suspect also claimed that Umoru
was in the habit of drawing IOUs from
the proceeds of the sale of the cards
without reimbursing her .
The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun ,
had said JAMB, for the first time,
remitted N 5bn to the government ’s
coffers with a promise to pay the
balance of N 3bn compared to
maximum N3 m remitted yearly in the
last 40 years.