By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
A Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, has been told how the former Registrar of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor Dibu Ojerinde, allegedly diverted N15 million from the board to set up a personal radio station in his hometown.
Prosecution witness, Air Commodore Najeem Sanusi (Rtd) who testified before the trial judge, Justice Obiora Egwuata, of court 9, in the ongoing trial of Ojerinde, told the court that he was given bank drafts of N15 million on the directives of the defendant, to procure a radio license from the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC).
According to a statement issued by Mrs. Azuka Ogugua, Spokesperson of the ICPC, Sanusi was brought before Justice Egwuata, to testify in a 10-count charge of official corruption and abuse of office brought against Ojerinde by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
The witness further told the court that he was a co-owner of Ifelodun Communications limited with the former JAMB boss, who is a leader in their community in Oke-Ogun in Oyo State, with the one million shares of the company split into 500,000 units each for both of them.
Led in evidence by counsel to ICPC, Olubunmi Olugasa, Sanusi who was a former Provost Marshal of the Nigerian Air Force told the court how he approached the former JAMB boss with the proposal to set up a radio station having gotten approval from NBC.
He said, “In 2015 after retirement, I sought a license from the Federal Government. I obtained the form from NBC and went to brief our leader. He welcomed my noble idea. There and then, he called his lawyer, Peter Oyewole to come to his house for a meeting.
“We agreed in the meeting held in his house that the name of the company should be Ifelodun Communications and we should go ahead and register the company with his name because that is the prerequisite for obtaining a license from NBC.
“He asked that we should allot 500,000 shares to him and 500,000 to myself. The defendant then called Mr Jimoh Olabisi who happened to be an accounting staff of JAMB and in a meeting in his house in Maitama, Abuja, he said that any matter related to financial issues should be directed to Mr Jimoh.
