Ex-Vanguard Newspaper employees arraigned for N29.3m fraud

Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, on Monday arraigned two former employees of Vanguard Media Ltd., Badmus Abiodun and Joseph Ejike, at a Lagos High Court, Ikeja for allegedly stealing N29.3m belonging to the newspaper company.

The accused were arraigned before Justice Lateefat Okunnu on 26 counts of conspiracy, forgery and stealing.

Abiodun, a former chief accountant of the firm, is facing a similar charge before the court for allegedly conspiring with a sales representative, James Unoka, to steal N7.9m belonging to the company.

In the fresh charge on which the EFCC arraigned Abiodun and Ejike on Monday, counsel for the anti-graft agency, Mr. Abba Mohammed, said the accused committed the offences between February 2006 and January 2009 in Lagos.

Both Abiodun and Ejike, a former sales representative of the company, pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Mohammed alleged that they had conspired to steal N29.3m belonging to the company by using their positions.

He also accused them of forging two Wema Bank Plc deposit slips No. 2333059 and 2333064,purporting to be in the sums of N930,000 and N950,000 respectively.