The Ilorin Zonal office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Wednesday, arraigned the General Manager of Kwara State Television Authority, Alhaji Abdulfatai Adewale Adebowale, on a six count charge bordering on malpractices.
Adebowale was arraigned before Justice Sikiru Oyinloye of a Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin.
Trouble started for the television boss when some staff of the television authority petitioned the anti-graft agency, alleging that the station’s GM sold the ten plots of land allocated to workers by the state government and converted it to personal use.
The petitioner also alleged that the defendant used his influence to allocate a plot of land to his daughter who is not working with the television station.
Count three of the six count charge reads,” that you, Abdulfatah Adewale Adebowale, being a public officer, as GM of Kwara Television sometime between May 2015 and June 2015, in Ilorin within the jurisdiction of the High court of Kwara State, used your office to confer corrupt advantage upon yourself, when you received a cash deposit of the sum of N2,350,000 through your Stanbic IBTC bank account number 0007306612 from Suleiman Abdulkareem being proceeds from the sale of land allocated to staff of Kwara State television and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 19 of the corrupt practices and other related offences Act 2000.”
The TV boss pleaded not guilty when the charges were read.
The Prosecuting counsel, Christopher Mschelia, however, told the court ” my Lord, in the light of the defendant’s plea of not guilty, the prosecution shall be praying this honourable court to give us a trial day and order the accused person be remanded in prison custody.”
Defence counsel, D B Hassana, told the court, “my Lord, we have no objections to the first prayer seeking a trial day but we shall be vehemently opposing the second prayer, I urge you to remand the defendant in EFCC custody because of health conditions.”
Justice Oyinloye ordered that the defendant be remanded in Oke Kura Correctional Service and adjourned the matter till next Tuesday for hearing of his bail application.
