Oyo State High Court has convicted and sentenced a banker, Oreoluwa Adesakin, to ninety eight years imprisonment for stealing the sum of about fifty million naira and additional, about four hundred thousand US dollars from the coffer of First Bank Plc.
Justice Muniru Olagunju who gave the verdict ordered the Convict to return all the stolen funds to the bank.
In his ruling, the judge noted that the EFCC amassed a pool of incontrovertible evidence against the convict and did a diligent investigation and prosecution.
Justice Olagunju subsequently pronounced Adesakin guilty of all the charges, sentencing her to seven years in prison without an option of fine on each of the 14 counts, which will run concurrently.
The convict was arraigned on April 4, 2014, following a conclusion of investigations against her which arose from a petition from First Bank Plc, dated December 18, 2013.
The bank alleged in the petition that the Convict, being its Money Transfer Operator, saddled with the responsibility of effecting payments through Western Union Money Transfer and Money Gram platforms, fraudulently manipulated accounting and withdrew the total sums of N49,320,652.32 and another $368,203.00 for herself, which the bank only uncovered while reviewing its internal account.
She was brought to court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on a 14-count charge, bordering on stealing, forgery and fraudulent accounting.
According to the Commission, the convict use her position to perpetrate the fraud by converting the stolen funds to her personal use.
EFCC counsel, Usman Murtala in arguing his case, presented various vital document which was admitted in evidence and witnesses to prove the allegations of stealing and fraud against the banker.
The EFCC was also able to establish that the convict used part of the proceeds of her crime to acquire landed properties in different parts of Oyo State.
An offence which she pleaded not guilty to all the charges, and enter trial.
One of the charges says: “That you Oreoluwa Adesakin sometime between the months of May 2013 and November 2013, at Ibadan within the Ibadan Judicial Division, whilst being a staff of First Bank Plc stole the sum of N25,974,116.13 from First Bank PLC MoneyGram Payment Naira Account, a property of First bank PLC.”
