DBassey Inyang in Calabar
The Chairman of the Cross River Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Dr. Stephen Odey, has stated that the agency has successfully blocked an attempt to defraud the board of the sum of N1.3 billion.
Odey who made the announcement through a statement alleged that the suspect forged his signature, and attempted to use the old letter head of the board to withdraw money from one of the bank accounts of SUBEB.
Odey said the fraudulent attempt was foiled when the bank alerted him about the transaction.
He said following the fraud alert from SUBEB, the bank reported the incident to the Department of State Services (DSS), and the suspect was tracked down in Edo State.
“On April 30, I was contacted by Ecobank to confirm my authorisation for the transfer of the sum of N1.3 billion to an account number … through a letter purported to have been sent by me to their Lagos branch.
“I was further informed that a certain … had made several calls to the bank asking that the said amount of money be transferred to his account as the owner of the company.
“This is in spite of the fact that SUBEB does not even have such an amount in its matching grant account.
“The ill-fated letter purported to have been signed and written by me was sent to my e-mail by the bank.
He said the suspect was unknown to him and had no contractual relationship with his office, adding that the said letter was forged.
“I quickly reported the matter to the Chief Security Officer to the Governor, Mr. Mark Anyogo.
“And I wrote a petition to the DSS to intervene and track down the … with his phone number sent to me from the bank,’’ he explained.
Odey said recent move was the third unsuccessful attempt by unscrupulous people to defraud SUBEB.
