The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) management has distanced itself from Ukanwa Ikechukwu, a Corps member who was detained on suspicion of scamming a female police officer, ACP Modupe Okpaleke.
He was charged with defrauding a police officer of N235,000 on Friday, April 14 before an Iyaganku Magistrate’s Court in Oyo state and was charged with fraud and theft.
According to a statement from the director of press and public relations, Eddy Megwa, the culprit, Ikechukwu left the NYSC when he finished his service in February 2023.
The statement read in part;
“The attention of the NYSC management in Oyo State has been drawn to the information circulating on social media about a corps member sent to jail in Ibadan, Oyo State, for criminal offence. Management wishes to make the following clarifications; the said Ukanwa Ikechuwuku is now an ex-corps member who passed out of National Service in February 2023.
Secondly, when he was serving, he collected a sum of N235,000 to purchase a physiotherapy machine for a woman at the police clinic where he was serving but failed to get the machine. Every attempt made by the woman to get a refund of her money from this ex-corps member proved abortive, therefore she decided to charge him to court for criminal offence.
I wish to emphasise that the NYSC uniform is not an immunity against any form of criminality because the laws of the federation applies to all and sundry.”
The defendant entered a not guilty plea to the accusations at his arraignment in court.
Inspector Olufemi Omilana, the prosecution, informed the court that the suspect allegedly received N235,000 from Modupe Okpaleke on December 4, 2022, with the purpose to deceive.
Omilana went on to say that ACP Okpaleke met Ukenwa while seeking treatment for a leg ailment at the Police Cottage Hospital in Eleyele, Ibadan. Ukenwa suggested that Okpaleke purchase a bicycle.
The police claim that Ikechukwu, who was doing his NYSC at the Police Cottage Hospital in Eleyele, Ibadan, took N235k from the female officer there to help her but instead fraudulently used the money for his personal purposes.
According to the prosecution, the crime violated sections 390 (9) and 419 of the Oyo State 2000 Criminal Code.
