CaseLaw
Opolo V. State (1977) CLR 11(a) (SC)
Judgement delivered on November 4th 1977
Brief
Facts
The case for the prosecution at the trial was that by false pretences and with intent to defraud the Appellant had obtained employment from the Midwestern State Government to a higher post than that to which he would have been employed and thereby had defrauded the Government of the salary attached to the higher post. The alleged false pretence were contained in his application for the employment.
In 1966 it was the policy of the Midwestern Region Government to absorb all indigenes of the State, who returned to the State on account of the national crisis of that year, into the services of the State, by offering them appointments equival¬ent to their status and to the posts they had held in their previous places of work in the other Regions from which they had returned. With this in view the returnees completed application forms wherein they gave information about their former places, of work, qualifications, posts held, and the salaries they were earning. On the strength of that information the returnees were given employments in compliance with that policy.
The evidence shows that the Appellant was in the employment of the Eastern Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation up to 1966 when on account of the crisis he retuned to the Midwest, in order to obtain the benefit of the absorption policy of the State, the Appellant applied for employment by filling the application form, which was admitted at the trial as Exhibit A, wherein he stated that he had been a Radio/Television News Editor (Permanent) on a salary of £720 per annum in the employment of the Eastern Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation, Enugu. Relying upon the information supplied by the Appellant, the Government of the Region of¬fered him a post equivalent to his former grade and employed him as an informa¬tion Officer on a salary of £720 per annum with effect from 13th April, 1967. The Appellant performed the duties of that office and received the salary attached there¬to from 13th May, 1967 to 31st October, 1970 when he was interdicted in connec¬tion with this case.
It was not in dispute that the Appellant was in the employment of the Eastern Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation. The false pretences were, as the charge averred, that he presented himself as a Radio/Television News Editor on a salary of £720 per annum when he was in fact a News Reporter on a salary of £340 (old scale) and that if the true facts had been known at the time of his absorption he would have been employed as Assistant Information Officer on a salary of £680 per annum (new scale). The case for the Appellant at the trial was that he was in fact what he presented himself to have been, i.e. a Radio/Television News Editor on a salary of £720 per annum.
The trial Judge did not believe the Appellant. He accepted the case for the prosecution and found that the Appellant had falsely pretended" to be a Radio/Televi¬sion News Editor on a salary of £720 and that that false pretence induced the Government of the Midwestern State to employ him as an Information Officer. He further found that the Appellant had defrauded the Government of the salary at¬tached to that office.