A disabled former revenue officer with the National Orthopedic Hospital, Enugu, Mrs. Dorothy Chigozie Amalili, has been sentenced to three years imprisonment for defrauding the hospital of N4.6 million.
Arraigned before an Enugu State High Court, presided over by Justice K. Okpe, Mrs Amalili was accused by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, of diverting N4,644.030.00 belonging to the hospital into personal use.
In an amended six-vount charge, the ICPC accused her of knowingly providing false statements in respect of money received, in order to conceal her actions, while performing official duties as a revenue officer.
ICPC counsel, Enosa Omoghibo, averred before the court that her offences, which were committed between February 2017 and December 2018, were contrary to Section 16 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000 and punishable under the same section of the Act.
The convict, was accused of defrauing the hospital of N4,644.030.00, over a period of time, while performing her duties, by writing the actual amounts collected from patients on the original copy of the receipts, while writing lesser amounts on the duplicate and triplicate copies of the same receipts kept in the Accounts Department for audit purposes, which enabled her to remit lesser sum of money than the actual amount collected to the hospital, thereby fraudulently retaining the difference.
At the conclusion of her trial Justice Okpe, at the conclusion of the trial, found her guilty on all six counts,and therefore, sentenced her to six months imprisonment for each of the counts, which will run concurrently.
The convict was also given an option of a fine in lieu of custodial sentence by the trial judge, for being a Person Living with Disability, PLWD. Her right leg had been amputated due to a diabetic foot ulcer.
The sentencing further included the convict making a refund of the entire sum she embezzled to the National Orthopedic Hospital, Enugu. She will therefore refund the balance of N4,544,030.00 to the hospital, after an initial repayment of N100,000. The money will be taken from her Pension Funds domiciled with IBTC Pensions, into the ICPC Recovery Account under the TSA as recovery for and on behalf of the hospital.
