Alleged $2.1m fraud: Court admits evidence against ex-NHIS boss

IKOYI, Lagos, Nigeria – Justice A. O. Faji of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, on Thursday, February 21, 2019, admitted a document tendered in evidence by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, #EFCC, against Dr. Martins Oluwafemi Thomas, a former Executive Secretary, National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

Thomas was re-arraigned alongside one Kabiru Sidi, a Bureau De Change Operator, on June 28, 2017 on an amended six-count charge bordering on money laundering to the tune of $2,198,900 (Two Million, One Hundred and Ninety Eight Thousand Nine Hundred Dollars).

He was alleged to have conspired with his wife, Femi, to make a cash payment of the sum to one Ibitoye Bamidele at their residence on 20, Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, Lagos.

The second defendant, Sidi was also said to have lied to an EFCC investigator, Afeez Mustapha that he was the owner of the money that the first defendant and his wife transacted with.

One of the count reads: “That you, Kabiru Sidi, on or about the 15th day of July, 2015, at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s Lagos Zonal office, Ikoyi, before the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court, made a false statement to Afeez Mustapha, an investigating officer with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 39 2(b)and punishable under Section 39 (2)(c)of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Establishment Act, 2004.”

At the resumed hearing today, a prosecution witness, Emmanuel Egwu, who is the Director of Finance, NHIS, gave a breakdown of total amounts of the entitlements, salaries and emoluments received by Thomas while he worked at the NHIS between November 2013 and May 2015.

Egwu, the third prosecution witness, PW3, while being led in evidence by counsel for the EFCC, Ekele Iheanacho, revealed that the total money Thomas received in his official capacity was a sum of N62,919,154.75 (Sixty- two Million, Nine Hundred and Nineteen Thousand, One Hundred and Fifty- Four Naira, Seventy-Five Kobo) only.