Two officials of Access Bank Plc, Sani Endurance Aferokhe and Hillary Odo, have been convicted and sentenced to a total of eight years imprisonment, by an Enugu State High Court sitting in Independence Layout Enugu, for stealing and diverting pensioners’ N10.3 million.
The convicted Access Bank Plc Officials were brought before the court presided over by Justice A. O. Onovo by the Enugu Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC) on the allegations on January 18, 2016 on a 15-count charge bordering on conspiracy, forgery and stealing to the said sum.
Count seven of the charge reads: Sani Endurance Aferokhe and Hillary Odo on or about the 21st day of November, 2012 at Nsukka within the jurisdiction of the Honourable Court, while as servants of Intercontinental Bank Plc (now Access Bank Plc), stole the sum of Four Million, Four Hundred and Forty-four Thousand Naira (N4, 440, 000. 00) property of Intercontinental Bank Plc (now Access Bank Plc) from a customer account with account name Udekwu F. A. O with number 00237808311 domiciled in Intercontinental Bank Plc (now Access Bank Plc) and thereby committed an offence”.
Count two of the charge reads: “Sani Endurance Aferokhe and Hillary Odo on or about the 12th day of October 2012 at Nsukka within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, while as servants of Intercontinental Bank Plc (now Access Bank Plc), stole the sum of Two Million, One Hundred and Thirteen Thousand, Six Hundred and Ten Naira, forty Kobo (N2, 113, 610. 40) property of Intercontinental Bank Plc (now Access Bank Plc) from a customer account with account name Onuora George with account number 0023781315 domiciled in Intercontinental Bank Plc (now Access Bank Plc) and thereby committed an offence.
The convicted Access Bank officials conspired among themselves to reactivate three accounts belonging to customers of the bank who happened to be pensioners without their consent and diverted the said sum for their personal benefits.
The offences are contrary to Section 459 (a) of the Criminal Code Law Cap 30 of Enugu State of Nigeria, 2004.
They pleaded not guilty to the charges, thereby setting the stage for their trial.
During the trial, the EFCC, through its counsel, Assistant Commander of the EFCC (ACE II) Michael Ikechukwu Ani presented five witnesses and tendered several documents.
Delivering judgment on Monday, the court dismissed counts six and nine, and convicted the second defendant on counts four and seven and while the first defendant was convicted on counts one, two, three, five, eight, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15. While the second defendant was sentenced to five years imprisonment on counts four and seven with an option of fine of N100, 000, 00, on each count.
The first defendant was sentenced to five years imprisonment on each of the said counts, except count fifteen which he was sentenced to three years imprisonment, with an option of N100, 000, 00.
