A businessman, Leonard Chukwuma, has told a Chief Magistrate’s Court sitting at Ebute-Meta, Lagos State, how his half-sister, Adaku, and her boyfriend, Ikechukwu Eze, allegedly stole N14m from his company.
Chukwuma appeared before Chief Magistrate F. M. Kayode-Alamu on Friday as a witness in the case against Eze.
Eze and Adaku were alleged to have conspired in 2020 to steal the said sum from the complainant’s Talkpoint telecommunications company.
Chukwuma said his sister asked for N10m to fund a company she and the defendant founded.
He said, “I know the defendant as a boyfriend to my half-sister and a petty soft drink trader. Early 2020, my sister told me both of them opened a company called Brit & Georgina, and that I should borrow them N10m. I told her I didn’t have the money, and that I was using borrowed money. I thought the matter had been laid to rest.”
Not long after, he said he started noticing missing funds from his company’s branch where Adaku worked as a cashier.
After confronting her, he said she confessed to stealing the money and fled.
Chukwuma said he petitioned the Area F Police Station and the two lovers were arrested, adding that they confessed to stealing a total sum of N14m and wrote an undertaking to return the money.
“Eze said the whole money was with him and the police should leave my sister, and he was going to pay back the money. He wrote an undertaking to that effect and they were released on bail. She disappeared. I have not set my eyes on her since then,” he added.
The complainant said Eze only paid half of the money and stopped responding to police invitations over the matter.
He said this prompted him to write another petition to the State Criminal Investigation Department, Yaba, and the defendant’s sureties were arrested.
The businessman lamented that despite writing another statement to return the money, Eze did not keep to his promise.
All the statements and petitions were tendered and admitted in evidence. The case was adjourned till July 20 for cross examination.