Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), has secured the conviction of an officer of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), who defrauded a citizen of N100,000. to help her to secure a fake NSCDC job.

The convict, Segun A. Odewale, a Superintendent with the NSCDC, was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment by Hon. Justice M. O. Agboola of Osun State High Court 6B, Osogbo on a three-count charge preferred against him.

On counts one and two, Mr. Odewale was indicted under Section 10(a), Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act2000, and on count three under Section 19 of that Act.

One of the counts read “Segun A. Odewale (M) sometimes in the year 2011 or thereabout being a public officer in the employment of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) Osun State Command did use your office as a staff of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) to confer unfair advantage on yourself upon receipt of the sum of N100,000 (One Hundred Thousand Naira) for yourself from one (name withheld) on account of a promise to secure employment for her with the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC)."

The defendant, through his lawyer, Mr. Muftau Abiodun Adediran, pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy as he was a first-time offender and a family man with lots of dependents.

The prosecution counsel, Mr. Elijah Akaakohol confirmed that the defendant had no previous offenses record with the Commission.

Justice Agboola thereafter sentenced the defendant to three years imprisonment on counts one, and two years imprisonment on counts two and three respectively. The recovered N100,000 have been forfeited to the Federal Government.

All the sentences are to run concurrently.

It would be recalled that as part of measures to curb cases of job racketeering, ICPC, through the Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria, had earlier in the year organized a Policy Dialogue on Entrenching Transparency in the Public Service Recruitment Process in Nigeria during which the Chairman, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye (SAN) disclosed that the Commission had received about 100 petitions on recruitment scam from victims, institutions and complicit individuals.