How woman used fake LPO in N30.6m scam

BY BARTHOLOMEW MADUKWE
LAGOS — A witness, Mr  Olapade Adaran, in a trial of N30.6 million fraud against a 45-year old woman, yesterday, narrated to a Lagos High Court in Igbosere how fake Local Purchasing Order, LPO, was used to carry out a scam.

The defendant, Mrs Adenike Alonge, who is currently in Ondo State prison custody over a separate offence, was first arraigned on March 12, 2012 on a three-count charge of stealing, forgery and obtaining under pretext which she pleaded not guilty to and was granted bail.

At the resumed hearing, yesterday, the witness told the court that a petition was written to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, by one Mr Babatunde Johnson claiming that he had been defrauded by one Mrs Adenike Alonge (defendant).

He said: ”In the petition, Johnson said the defendant presented to him a Local Purchase Order, LPO, claiming that her company, Danic Adax, had been approved by the Lagos State Government to supply 10 trailers of cement and three trailers of rice worth N30.6 million

“Mr Johnson said that he supplied the goods to the defendant and he was paid N3.6 million via a Wema Bank cheque of N27 million which was rejected by the bank as a result of insufficient funds.”

According to the witness, who was led by the EFCC counsel, Mr A. M. Yusuf, the defendant (Alonge) was invited to the commission’s office and she responded at her convenience to the petition with four statements, two on November 5, 2010 and two on November 8, 2010.

The witness said: “It was during investigation that the EFCC wrote a letter to Wema Bank to request the statement of account and Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, to enquire about the company.

“During investigation, we discovered that the defendant was aware that the account was empty before issuing the cheque. She is just a shareholder to the company and had no contract to supply any goods to the state government.”

EFCC counsel subsequently tendered the defendant’s statement and issued cheque as evidence, which was admitted by the court.