(LOCAL) Court Frees Teacher Accused By Ex-Gov’s Wife Of Stealing $110,267

  Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo of an Ikeja Special Offences Court, Lagos yesterday discharged and acquitted a school teacher, Ebele Mbanugo, who was accused of stealing $110,267 allegedly belonging to Mrs Onari Duke, a former First lady of Cross-River. Mbanugo, a teacher at the American International School Lagos, AISL, was accused of stealing the sum from a non-governmental organisation, NGO, owned by the Mrs Onari Duke.

   Mbanugo, who was a Vice-Principal of AISL was alleged to have defrauded the Child Survival and Development Organisation of Nigeria, Duke’s NGO of the funds between 2009 and 2011. According to the state prosecutor, Mrs K. O Sarumi, “the defendant between 2009 and 2011 at American International School, Victoria Island, Lagos, fraudulently misappropriated $110,267.57 property of Child Survival and Development Organisation.

  However, Justice Taiwo, while acquitting Mbanugo, said the prosecution failed to prove that the allegedly stolen funds, raised for the purpose of purchasing mammogram machines for detection of breast cancer was misappropriated by the defendant. She noted that the suit stemmed from a “serious and disruptive rivalry” between the defendant and Duke on the ownership of the fund raising initiative.