Patience Ogbo/
A woman held by the police in Lagos has told how she stole N60million from the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
The suspect, Mrs Funmilayo Oyelaja, was arrested with her lover who allegedly connived with her to divert the N60million meant for health insurance to her personal account.
Mrs Oyelaja and her lover identified as Tunde spoke with NewsmakersNG while being paraded by the Lagos State commissioner of police, CP Zubairu Muazu, at the Police Officers’ Mess in Ikeja, today.
Mrs Oyelaja, a mother of two, said: “I had worked with Clearline International Limited from 2014 till early 2019. What we do there is that we act as the middle-man between NHIS and the hospitals. Our company cheat the system as they falsify records. When NHIS gives us money to pay hospitals and we do not spend all that was given to us, we do not refund the excess to NHIS purse, the company pockets the money.
“The money that I diverted on behalf of the company was N60 Million, but I diverted N38 million to my personal account. My bosses, Kolawole Samuel and Patricia Oteh were all involved in the fraud. It was an insider in my office that called my husband telling him that we should run away. So we ran to Ghana. It was, however, after they arrested my husband that I had to come out to tell the police the truth.”
Mrs Oyelaja was the accountant at Clearline International Limited – a Lagos-based Health Management Office (HMO) when the crime was committed. She had been a staff of the company since 2014.
Tunde said, “Funmilayo is my lover. She told me she wanted to travel out because she had defrauded her company and needed to run far. We left for Ghana early this year but I had to return some two weeks back when news reached me that my mother was dead. It was at her burial in Ogba that I was arrested.”
The Secretary of Clearline International Limited, Ijeoma Anyiam, said, “It was the day Funmilayo commenced her annual vacation that a hospital called that she has not paid them for some months.
“They said how she was doing it was that anytime they called, she would tell them that it would be resolved and since that was her portfolio, she would take money meant for another hospital, and pay them. So when they complained and she was on vacation, someone else had to look into the matter and they found out we had paid on a particular date. We got their account number, investigated and that was how we found out the fraud. The company will cooperate with the police in their investigation and ensure that those indicted are arrested.”
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