Doctor jailed seven years for N127m fraud

A Federal High Court sitting in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, has convicted and sentenced a medical doctor, Dr Geraldine Orok Ita, to prison for fraud.

Ita was prosecuted by the Uyo Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on a 12-count charge, bordering on forgery and diversion of fund to the tune of N127,686,594.

One of the charges read: “That you, Dr Geraldine Orok Ita ‘F’ on or about the 6th day of November, 2014, in Calabar, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, did make a forged document to wit: FORM CAC 10 (ANNUAL RETURN FOR A SMALL COMPANY) IN RESPECT OF SHARPNET CONCEPT LIMITED DATED 06/1 1/2014, purported to have been signed by Mrs. Rose Orok Ita (a Director in Sharpnet Concept Limited), with the intent that the document may be acted upon as genuine and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1 (2) (C) of the Miscellaneous Offences Act Cap M 17 of the Revised Edition (Law of the Federation of Nigeria) and Punishable under Section 1 (2) (c) of the same Act.”

The doctor pleaded “not guilty” to the charges, prompting her trial that commenced in 2019.

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In the course of the trial, the prosecution counsel, Joshua Abolarin, called witnesses and presented evidence.

Convinced that the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt, the presiding judge, Justice Rosemary Oghogho-rie, convicted and sentenced Ita to seven years imprisonment on Friday, February 7, 2025.

Ita’s journey to Nigeria Correctional Centre commenced when the EFCC received a petition in 2019 from Sharpnet Concept Limited and ROK Project Limited initiated by two of its directors alleging that the doctor “forged and fraudulently altered” the documents of the companies in favour of herself by removing the two initial directors from the companies’ records and claiming to be the second wife of Engr. Orok Okonkon Ita who died in 2004.

According to the EFCC, the petitioners further stated that besides carrying out the fraudulent alterations, the convict appointed a new company Secretary on November 6, 2014, changed the registered address of the companies, and made re-allotments and return of allotments of shares.

The Star