Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibadan zonal office, has arraigned two persons for allegedly defrauding a lecturer and doctoral student of Department of Crop Protection and Environmental Biology, University of Ibadan (UI), Dele Akinbuluma.
The suspects, Augustine Ekeson and Obinna Ureahl, were arraigned on Monday at the Federal High Court in Ibadan.
EFCC opened a three-count charge bordering on impersonation and obtaining under false pretences on the suspects.
The UI lecturer had petitioned EFCC on February 17, 2016, that the duo conspired to defraud him of the sum N875,490 in December 2015.
He said the sum was the naira equivalent of $4,169 for consumables needed for a six-month bench space research that he was to undertake at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology in Nairobi, Kenya, as part of his doctoral programme.
Akinbuluma, who got a grant from the premier university for the research work, said he had been in constant communication with the leadership of the centre before the accused hacked into his email account and defrauded him.
He said the accused paraded themselves as his supervisor at the centre, Prof. Baldwyn Tonto, and demanded that he paid the naira equivalent of the due sum to a colleague’s Nigerian bank account for transmission to the centre’s account in Kenya.
Justice Patricia Ajoku adjourned the case till June 20 for trial after remanding the defendants in prison custody.
