How my foundation staff defrauded me of N3m Alakija
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alakija also told the court that she confronted vincent and seized his mobile phone after he had received a suspicious call1 by moji eniola1 the news agency of nigeria nan reports that vincent who was employed by alakija as a clerk and administrative officer is standing trial alongside his siblings florence and emmanuel as well as four others for fraud1 the other defendants are onuwa david okoronkwo chikadibia ehizibolo george and chinyere awanah1 vincent was accused of defrauding alakijas foundation of the fund by forging cheques and conniving with his siblings and cohorts to pose to banks as beneficiaries of the foundation1 alakija while being led in evidence by mr m.d aliyu the prosecuting counsel for the economic and financial crimes commission efcc told the court how she was allegedly defrauded by vincent1 her testimony lasted from 2 pm to 3.23 pm1 she said on nov. 13 2012 i was called by my treasurer gladys efiozor who said she received a call from stanbic ibtc that there was a forgery of a cheque1 i told her to send me an email of the forged cheque and when i saw it i told her that the signature was not mine1 there are three signatories to that account and the forged signature did not match those of the other signatories1 florence vincents sister was the one caught with the cheque the bank called efcc to investigate and florence was handed over to the efcc1 it was discovered that the bag she was carrying had 12 different identity cards of beneficiaries of the foundation with her pictures on the identity cards1 the bag also contained cash collected from other banks from the foundations account1 mrs folorunso alakija a billionaire businesswoman on thursday told an ikeja high court how one vincent ayewah a staff of her rose of sharon foundation allegedly defrauded her of n3 million1 she also claimed that vincent deleted an incriminating text message from his phone1 he admitted to the fraud and begged for mercy he had done other infractions in the past and had begged for mercy anytime he was caught alakija added1 alakija told the court that vincent enjoyed a new lifestyle with proceeds from the alleged scam claiming he bought new car which he parked far away from the premises of the office to avoid detection1 a blank cheque and a survey plan of a property was in his car1 he had committed infractions before begged for mercy and i forgave him. i thought that with warnings he will change the businesswoman said1 but while being cross-examined by mr obiora umeh the defence counsel to the ayewahs and other defendants alakija gave further insight into the alleged fraud1 there are widows and orphans that need to be empowered i had one project manager at the time that vincent ayewah was reporting to1 when he needs to write the cheques he had to handle the cheque book i knew he was issuing the cheques because it was part of his duty1 the auditors must have gone through the list of beneficiaries and approved it i cant remember now if they were going through the cheque books because our systems have since changed1 the issue at hand is that the first defendant vincent had taken blank cheques and written the names of the beneficiaries on them1 vincents siblings had gone to pose in banks to pretend that they were the original beneficiaries1 even if it wasnt a blank cheque he had torn out and he had followed the normal sequence of things they will still go and pose as beneficiaries alakija said1 justice hakeem oshodi adjourned the case till oct. 25 for continuation of trial1