A media agent and a proprietor, Afolabi Nasiru has narrated to Special Offences Court in Ikeja, Lagos, how his account domicile with the First Bank Plc was used to transfered 14million naira fraudulently.
Nasiru disclosed this in his defence before Justice Mojisola Dada where is standing trial alongside Bamidele AbdulMumuni and Olorunwa Babatunde Idowu over alleged N14m fraud by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
EFCC had arraigned the three defendants on a forty counts charge bordering on conspiracy and stealing.
Upon their arraignment, the second defendant, Bamidele AbdulMumuni who is an estate developer pleaded guilty to all the count charges and he was convicted accordingly.
But the other defendant pleaded not guilty which led to their trial.
Afolabi Nasiru, the third defendants claimed to be a Media Advert Agent and a proprietor of Parent Joy Children School, said that he met the second defendant, Idowu, a Marketing Officer of the First Bank Plc, through a bulk teller Babatunde Fagbenro in the bank.
According to him, “Fagbenro normally assist me when there is crowd in banking hall. He introduced me to Babatunde when I needed assistance on the international visa for school fees of my son which require traffic in my bank account
“Olorunwa Babatunde then told me that he knew a willing customer that can assist me to facilitate traffic in my account. He collected my corporate account details of the advert agency and the school, few weeks after, I got alert of N3million credit paid into my account.
” After, I informed Olorunwa and he advised me to issue a cheque to return the money back to the sender which is Abdul Mumuni Bamidele whom I never met before in my life and one Prof Alaba Emmanuel among others who are paying into my account.
“Anytime money enters into my account he always urged me to issue cheque to return the money to the sender
“I normally return the exact amount to every sender for each transaction. I have not for once have financial benefits from such transaction, my intention is to generate traffic base on the advise of my travelling agent.
“I don’t know how they usually return the money back to the sender. I could have notice this problem if my money is missing but my money is in intact from every transaction debit charges.”
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When he was asked by his counsel how he knew that there was a problem, he replied that, when he was admitted in a private hospital for treatment of diabetes, he tried to pay for his medical bill but wasn’t successful.
Nasiru said that when he tried to use ATM to make withdraw, it was then that he discovered that his account has been blocked.
“Upon enquiry I discovered that it was EFCC that blocked my account based on investigation. I went to EFCC Office in Ikoyi for verification and rectification, and I met the secretary of the agency who directed me to Team B of the cybercrime section.
“I met a senior officer, Mrs Omolola Oyalowo in that unit, they asked whether I know one Abdul-Mumuni Bamidele and my thinking was that may be the bankers have not been remitting the funds back to the sender.
“I was later told that Abdul-Mumuni Bamidele and others at large commit a fraud which led to blockage of my account.
“They showed me their photographs but I didn’t recognize anyone among them. I was detained for 16days and the commission seized my personal items.
“I facilitated arrest of Olorunwa and Fagbenro, on the day of the arrest, Babatunde Fagbenro escaped from the rear door of the bank. It was only Olorunwa that was arrested on that day.
“The following day, Fagbenro came to EFCC office, the two bankers came to my cell to apologise to me, I had never been detained.
“I was granted adminstrative bail on November 2018 and I diligently complied with all the conditions in the bail.
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“In Primea Media account, I had 6.5million which doesn’t belong to Prof Alaba Emmanuel, the complainant, it’s not a proceed of crime, it’s my hard earn money. The money was meant for the payment of my customers such as Punch and Guardian Newspapers
“Most of the money in my account are paid in by customers for job yet to be executed.
“My contact in Guardian Newspapers who normally arranged credit facilities for me was arrested by Zone 2 as regards the debit. He was later released when I signed undertaking that immediately my account is unblocked I will settle the bill.”
His counsel therefore applied for admissibility of the letter of debt from Punch, Guardian and Landlord as exhibit in the matter which was not opposed by other counsel.
The letter was admitted and marked exhibit D6, 7 and D8.
Earlier, Olorunwa Idowu was cross examined. He told the court that he worked with First bank for the period of 10 years. He admitted that he gave out Nasiru account out to Bamidele AbdulMumuni now a convict. He explained that he doesn’t knows the source of the money.
After listened to their testimony, Justice Dada directed counsel to parties to within the stipulated time by law file their final written address for judgement.
She subsequently adjourned the matter till September 30, 2020
