The Nigerian Correctional Service has commenced a probe into the alleged $1 million scam perpetrated by one Olusegun Aroke, aka Hope Aroke, who is serving a 24-year jail term in Kirikiri Maximum Security Custodial Centre in Lagos.
The convict, who was the subject of an investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, reportedly pulled the heist using a network of accomplices.
Aroke was one of the two Malaysia-based Nigerian undergraduate fraudsters arrested by the EFCC in 2012 at the 1004 Housing Estate, Victoria Island, Lagos, following a tip.
According to the EFCC, preliminary investigations revealed that the convict, against established standard practice, had access to internet and mobile phone in the correctional centre.
”Even more puzzling was the finding that Aroke got himself admitted to the Nigeria Police Hospital, Falomo, Lagos, for an undisclosed ailment and from the hospital, he would move out to lodge in hotels, meet with his wife and two children and attend other social functions,” the EFCC said in a statement on Tuesday.
But the Controller-General of Corrections, Jaáfaru Ahmed, has ordered that a comprehensive investigation into the allegation should be carried out and the recommendations immediately forwarded to his office for appropriate action.
The NCS spokesman, Controller of Corrections, Francis Enobore, in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday said any official found to have aided Aroke would be sanctioned.
He started, ”Without prejudice to the outcome of the investigation, the CG wishes to assure members of the public that if any official is found to have been involved in the ignoble act, the culprit will face the consequences as prescribed by the law.”
Ahmed further stressed that the modicum of discipline and integrity required of every officer of the Correctional Service “will not be compromised under any circumstance.”
