The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ilorin Zonal Command, on Wednesday, June 21, arraigned Temidayo Eseyin, an associate pastor with the Living Faith Church, also known as Winners Chapel, for allegedly defrauding Landmark University, Omu-Aran, Kwara State, of N19.3 million.
Eseyin, a lawyer and former member of the Disciplinary Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association, Ilorin Branch, was charged with dishonest misappropriation of university funds before Justice Funsho Lawal of the Kwara State High Court in Ilorin.
Eseyin had access to her properties, title documents, and funds while working as a counsel/attorney for Landmark University, according to a petition to the EFCC.
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Eseyin was accused of “cheating, defrauding, misappropriating, and shortchanging his client to her utmost dismay” in his assumed capacity.
Specifically, between 2014 and 2022, the defendant managed a property known as “Old Midland Building” belonging to Landmark University, located along Emir’s/Obbo Road, Ilorin, which rent Eseyin collected for 8 years and could not produce when asked.
The petitioner also claimed that Eseyin attempted to sell the property without permission from the university, which prompted the petition to the EFCC.
Count three of the charge reads, “That you, Temidayo Eseyin sometime in the year 2021, in Ilorin Kwara State, within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court dishonestly misappropriated the sum of Six Million, Sixty Four Thousand Naira Only (6, 064,000) representing payment of rent on property known as Old Midland Building belonging to Landmark University and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 308 of the Penal Code Law and Punishable under Section 309 of the same Law.”
The defendant pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Following his plea, EFCC counsel Rashidat Alao urged the court to set a trial date and remanded the defendant in the custody of the Nigerian Correctional Centre pending trial.
Eseyin’s lawyer, Femi Makinde, filed an application for the defendant’s bail. He requested that the court release his client on bail pending trial.
While ruling on the application, Justice Lawal admitted the defendant to bail in the sum of N10 million with two sureties of N5 million each.
The judge ruled that the sureties must own land within the court’s jurisdiction.
The judge ordered that the defendant be remanded in the custody of the EFCC pending the completion of his bail conditions, while adjourning the case to a date to be communicated to the parties.
