An Enugu State High Court presided over by Justice K.I. Okpe on July 22, 2019, sentenced a pension fraudster, Akpudili Anayo to six years in prison for N13million pension fraud.
The Enugu Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC had charged Anayo with forgery, impersonation, conspiracy and stealing.
He had on April 8, 2019, pleaded “guilty” to the six counts preferred against him when he was arraigned, and he was convicted, accordingly.
Anayo’s journey to prison started when the Enugu State government petitioned the EFCC alleging fraudulent transactions traced to him.
The State Executive had on May 3, 2017, directed that the May, June and July 2017 pension/salaries of the state pensioners and three other agencies of the state government be paid by cheques after physical verification.
However, at the end of the verification exercise, it was revealed that the convict who was an Ad-hoc staff for the verification exercise, in charge of the system computing the names of the verified civil servants in the state, conspired and used the bank accounts of three fake pensioners: Ngene Patrick Somtochukwu, Ani Ifeyinwa and Patience Christian Chimezie, domiciled in Fidelity, Stanbic IBTC and First banks respectively to divert funds meant for the pension and salaries of the civil servants in the 17 local government areas of Enugu State.
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