A 31-year-old former bank worker, Augustine Ononiwu, was yesterday arraigned before an Ikeja Magistrates’ Court for allegedly stealing N5.1 million from customers.
The defendant, who lives at Ikeja, is facing a two-count charge of conspiracy and stealing before Magistrate J.O. Awope.
The prosecutor, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Ezekiel Ayorinde, told the court that the defendant and others still at large conspired to steal the cash,The Nation reports
He said the offence was committed between August 2017 and January at Ogba, Lagos.
Ayorinde said the defendant, who worked in the domestic fund transfer unit of the bank, was to process recall of erroneous customers’ transfer with the bank.
He alleged that the defendant instead of processing the recalled faulty transfers diverted the cash to personal use.
According to him,
“the defendant diverted several customers’ recalled funds that were expected to be credited to other banks to his personal use. The theft was discovered when one of the beneficiaries who had yet to be credited came to the bank to complain”.
The prosecutor when the bank investigated the matter, it was discovered that the defendant debited the bank and “fraudulently credited his accomplices”.
T he defendant, he said, was arrested and handed over to the police.
The accused pleaded not guilty.
Magistrate Awope granted him N1 million bail with two sureties in the like sum.
She ordered that the sureties should be employed and show evidence of two years tax payment to the Lagos State Government.
The case continues February 19.
Emeh Achanga,the CEO of the Miss Petite Nigeria Brand is a lawyer turned blogger. She is very passionate about writing, with several publications and awards to her credit .She is currently working on publishing a collection of short stories which are basically a memoir about her exciting true experiences.
