…Alleged N900m fraud: Ex-JAMB Registrar, Ojerinde, begs for plea bargain

…As court adjourns to receive report of settlement from ICPC

By Ikechukwu Nnochiri & Joseph Erunke

THE Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has shifted the commencement of its Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME and the Direct Entry, DE, registration by one week.

The board in a statement by the Head of Media and Protocol, Dr Fabian Benjamin, yesterday, said the registration would now start on February 19 instead of February 12 earlier announced.

The statement read: “The commencement of the 2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, and Direct Entry, DE, registration exercise earlier scheduled for Saturday, February 12, 2022, has now been postponed to Saturday, February 19, 2022, to end on Saturday, March 26, 2022.

“The one-week postponement is to allow for more fine-tuning of the upgraded and more user-friendly procedures for candidates’ registration.

READ ALSO: 2022 UTME/DE registration to now start on February 19 ,says JAMB

“The process, which will be concluded within the one-week extension period, is also aimed at accommodating feedbacks from candidates and other stakeholders alike.

“The board wishes the general public to note that the board is ever-ready to provide world-class services to Nigerians.

“Further to the above, the new and improved procedures for the 2022 UTME registration would be made available on the board’s website, its weekly bulletin as well as other media outlets on Monday, February 14, 2022.

“The candidates, are by this notice, urged to follow keenly the procedures for registration as would be announced by the Board.”

Ex-JAMB Registrar begs for plea bargain

Meanwhile, former Registrar of JAMB, Adedibu Ojerinde, who is facing trial over his alleged involvement in a N900million fraud, yesterday, secured permission of the Federal High Court in Abuja to enter into a plea bargain with the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, ICPC.

Ojerinde urged trial Justice Obiora Egwuatu to suspend full-blown hearing of the case to enable him to broker an out-of-court settlement deal with the commission.

ICPC had in an 18-count criminal charge marked FHC/ABJ/CR/97/2021, alleged that the defendant committed multiple frauds between 2003 and 2021, while he held sway at JAMB.

It alleged that the former JAMB boss had while serving as the Registrar of the National Examination Council, NECO, used his position to gratify himself, by “corruptly converting N27million, property of the Federal Government of Nigeria, to personal use, to acquire a property known as Tejumola House, Ikeja, Lagos in the name of Doyin Ogbohi Industries Ltd, a company in which you have a private interest.”

He was accused of diverting N3,811,876,230.10, around February 16, 2009, into a new generation bank accounts number: 1002833087 and 1011265699 “in the name of JAMB-J. O. Olabisi.”

In counts 4 and 5 of the charge, ICPC alleged that he used his position as JAMB Registrar to confer corrupt advantage on one Jimoh Olabisi Olatunde, whose accounts in two banks with numbers: 1013583506 and 0022594599, in the name of JAMB-J. O. Olatunde, and allegedly diverted N205,712,575.23 between 2019 and 2018.

Meanwhile, at the resumed proceedings in the matter, yesterday, Ojerinde, through his lawyer, Mr. Ibrahim Ishyaku, SAN, urged the court to give him 24 hours to perfect his plea bargain deal with the ICPC.

“My Lord, our request is that we should be given 24 hours to explore the possibility of plea bargain to resolve this matter and we ask that the trial be adjourned for the period to enable us come up with our terms of settlement,” Ishyaku pleaded.

On his part, counsel to the ICPC, Mr Ebenezer Sogunle, said he was not opposed to the request.

Consequently, Justice Egwuatu adjourned the matter till Wednesday for report of settlement.

VANGUARD NEWS NIGERIA