The Lagos State Police Command has arrested a couple for allegedly defrauding the Federal Government of N60 Million, through the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). The couple, Ogunseye Tunde and Oyelaja Fumilayo, had after the fraudulent act ran to Ghana.
Fumilayo who works with Clearline International Limited, a Health Management Office (HMO), based in Lagos, had allegedly diverted the funds meant for health insurance to her personal account. It was gathered that Fumilayo who had worked with the company since 2014, also indicted the HMO in the said fraud. She revealed that the HMO trained her worker to also cheat the system.
Fumilayo had after diverting the said amount, took her annual leave early this year and absconded with her lover and accomplice Tunde, to Ghana. The company had, however , uncovered the fraud after Fumilayo had left for her annual vacation. The company had launched an investigation into the fraud as attempts to reach Fumilayo proved abortive. The suspects were arrested and paraded by the Lagos Commissioner of Police, CP Zubairu Muazu, at the Police Officers’ Mess in Ikeja, on Monday. Funmilayo, a mother of two said:
“ I have another worked with Clearline International Limited from 2014 to early 2019. What we do there is that we act as the middle man between NHIS and the hospitals. Our company cheats the system as we falsify records. When NHIS gives us money to pay hospitals, we do not spend all that was given to us and 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 took 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 to tell him that we should run away. So we ran to Ghana. It was after they arrested my husband that I had to come out to tell the police the truth. The truth is that our company cheats.
We were trained on how to steal. I am warning people who do business with HMO to be weary. On his own, Tunde said, he knew about the fraud. He said, “ Fumilayo 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 also spoke on the development. According to Anyiam:”
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 now 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.
” On what the company expects, Anyiam who is also the General Manager of the HMO said the company would corporate with the police in her investigation and ensure that those indicted in the company were brought to book
