Nigeria’s anti-graft body, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) last week started legal processes against a government official who claimed snakes had eaten funds.
According to Africa News, EFCC said Philomina Chieshe and five others had been found complicit over the issue hence their arraignment before a High Court judge in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
Philomina, an accounts clerk with the state-run exams body, claimed in February 2018 that a snake had “spiritually” made away with 36 million naira cash ($100,000 plus). The issue had Nigerians on social media expressing varying opinions from outrage, disbelief and mockery.
The missing funds belong to the country’s Joints Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), a state agency responsible for the registration of admissions for people seeking to enter the various universities. JAMB has since suspended the clerk and vowed to unravel the mystery.
The incident took place at the JAMB offices in Makurdi, capital of Benue State where the clerk in answering audit queries said her housemaid and a fellow employee had confessed to ‘spiritually’ stealing the monies she kept in an office vault.
Auditors from the capital Abuja had been sent to take inventory of funds accrued over the sale of scratch cards to students hoping to gain access to JAMB’s website to register or check on the status of their admissions. The audit came up after reforms by the current registrar struck out the use of the cards.
Talk of an upgrade from the dog ate my homework to the snake ate the money.
