A Lagos State Magistrate’s  Court sitting in Ogba, Lagos,  on Monday admitted two exhibits in evidence against an ex-employee of Punch Nigeria Limited, Olamide Fashanu, who is facing theft charges.

The police are  prosecuting Fashanu, a former advert  executive with Punch Nigeria Limited, for allegedly stealing the  sum of N4,936,805 belonging to the company.

Fashanu, who was arraigned on one count on March 19, 2015, however, pleaded not guilty and was granted bail in the sum of N100,000.

At the resumed proceedings on Monday, the presiding magistrate, Mr. Oyetade Komolafe, admitted two exhibits tendered by the police to prove their case against the defendant.

The exhibits were tendered by the police prosecutor, Joseph Ajebe, through the first prosecutor’s witness, Ademola Ayeni, an accountant with Punch Nigeria Limited.

The exhibits admitted and marked P01 and P02 were the statement made by Ayeni to the police in respect of the matter and the accounts records showing how Fashanu collected the N4.9m that he was accused of stealing.

In admitting the two exhibits, the magistrate, in two separate rulings, overruled the objection by the defence counsel, Kingsley Kezie, that the document did not meet the requirement of the Evidence Act.

Ayeni had in his evidence-in-chief told the court how Fashanu allegedly committed the offence between October 2013 and December 19, 2014 at No. 1 Olu Aboderin Street, Onipetesi, Ikeja, Lagos State.

The witness said, “As an accountant in charge of credit control of Punch Nigeria Limited, whose primary responsibility is to collect advert profile data, to compute and report all advert profiles published in PUNCH titles, during my routine update and reporting, I discovered that adverts published in the name of Olamide Fashanu, who as of then was an advert executive with Punch Nigeria Limited, were in credit to the tune of N6,149,417.26 and I reported  the amount to his superiors.

“Because of the amount involved, it could not have been allowed to stand as credit for the period involved. That was between 2013 and 2014.”

Ayeni said all efforts to recover the money  from Fashanu failed,  forcing the company to report the matter to the police, who, in the course of investigation, were able to recover N1, 212, 612.26 out of the sum from Fashanu.

The matter has been adjourned till May 4 and 5, 2016 for Ayeni to be cross-examined by the defence counsel.

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