Another N49.3m, $368,000 Rock First Bank Plc, Ex-staff Jailed 98 Years

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As First Bank Plc battles a former dispatch ridder, Omeli Humphrey Darlington, who has alleged that the bank is using him as scapegoat to cover up an internal fraud to the tune of N355 million, a former staff of First Bank Plc, Oreoluwa Adesakin has been sentenced to 98 years in jail for stealing N49,320,652, and additional $368,203 as employee of the Bank in 2013.

Justice Muniru Olagunju of the Oyo State High Court found the ex-staff of First Bank Plc, Adesakin guilty of committing the fraud against her employers to the tune of N49,320,652, and additional $368,203.

The convict was prosecuted by the Ibadan Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on a 14-count charges, bordering on stealing, forgery and fraudulent accounting.

One of the charges read: “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 from First Bank Plc MoneyGram Payment Naira Account.”

The Adesakin pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

However, a prosecution counsel, Usman Murtala, presented vital documents and witnesses which eventually nailed the convict while Justice Olagunju wasted no time in pronouncing Adesakin guilty as charged.

The judge then sentenced her to seven years in prison without an option of fine on each of the 14 counts, which will run concurrently.

The judge also ordered the convict to restitute the First Bank, through the EFCC, all the money she stole.

She was arraigned by the EFCC April 4, 2014, following a painstaking investigation on First Bank petition dated December 18, 2013.

The convict, Adesakin was a Money Transfer Operator, saddled with the responsibility of effecting payments through Western Union Money Transfer and Money Gram platforms. But she manipulated the accounting system and withdrew a total of N49,320,652 and another $368,203 for herself.

According to the EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, operatives of the anti-graft agency established that the convict used part of the proceeds to acquire landed properties in different parts of Oyo State.

This is even as top management of the bank has been fingered by a former Dispatch Ridder in the alleged stealing of no fewer than N355m million from an account belong to a prominent company in Lagos as contained in a petition by Mr. Omeli to the EFCC and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has shown.

The Dispatch Ridder in a recent video alleged that First Bank Plc officials have been trailing him to back off on the stolen N355m, which led to the tarmination of his employment by his employers.

He equally alleged that First Bank Plc had sent men suspected to be hired assassins to his village in search of him after alleged attempt to use security agencies to eliminated him seven years ago failed.

He equally narrated how his sick mother was harassed and threatened by the suspected killer squad.

The Street Reporters Newspaper is currently investigating further into the allegations.

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