Nigerian sales clerk suspended over missing state funds ‘swallowed by snake’

Nigerians are having the fun of their lives after news broke that a mystery snake has sneaked into the accounts office of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, in Makurdi, the Benue State capital and made away with N36 million cash (approximately $100,000).

JAMB candidates had hitherto purchased scratch cards from the JAMB state offices and other designated centers to enable them access to the Board’s website for registration or to check their admission status.

But reforms by JAMB registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, recommended an end to the use of scratch cards.

A team of auditors was subsequently asked to go to the state offices of JAMB to take inventory of the sold and unsold scratch cards and recover any money that might have either been generated or mismanaged during the sale of the scratch cards.

When the team arrived at the Makurdi office of JAMB, a sales clerk, Philomina Chieshe, told the registrar of JAMB that she could not account for N36 million she made before the abolition of scratch cards.

Upon interrogation, Philomena confessed it was her housemaid that connived with another JAMB staff, Joan Asen, to “spiritually” steal the money from the vault in the accounts office.

She said the two confessed that they have been stealing the money “spiritually” through a mysterious snake that always sneaks into the office to swallow the money from the vault.

“It was a mystery to me too. I have been saving the money in the bank, but I found it difficult to account for it. So I started saving it in a vault in the office. But each time I open the vault, I will find nothing. I became worried and surprised how the millions of Naira could be disappearing from the vault. I began to interrogate everybody in the house and office, and no one could agree on what might have happened to the money. I continued to press until my housemaid confessed. She said that the money disappeared spiritually,” she said as quoted by Daily Post Nigeria.

Philomina Chieshe has since been suspended.

Corruption is killing most African countries and Nigeria is no exception. Between January 1 and August 30, 2017, Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had reportedly recovered about $69.5 million as proceeds of corruption.

This recovered money was said to be more than the country’s budget. Many Nigerians have over the years lost confidence in the government machinery to fight the menace. And so when the “mystery” snake issue broke on Saturday, most of them said they would have none of that.

Check out their response on social media: