An Ikeja Special Offences Court yesterday heard how an ex-bank staff member, Olajide Ogunmoroti, and his cohorts allegedly stole N5,726,994,110.00 from a second-generation bank (names withheld).
The witness, Abdulmajeed Agboola, a bank employee with nine years of experience, narrated this while giving evidence before Justice Olubunmi Abike-Fadipe.
Led in evidence by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the prosecuting counsel, Abdulhamid L. Tukur, the witness told the court that the first defendant, Olajide Ogunmoroti, was a staff member with the Bank
“My Lord he was the ICT representative of Abakaliki branch”, he said.
The witness told the court that there was a glitch in their bank server, which they investigated, and it was spotted at their branch in Abakiliki.
“There was a fraudulent overdraft limit maintained on our customers’ accounts, which enabled them to withdraw from the unfunded accounts.
“We observed that suspicious overdrafts were maintained on customers’ accounts, which allowed them to access funds and transfer to accounts maintained in both the Bank and other banks”
“We identified customers whose accounts benefited from the suspicious overdraft maintenance with total exposure of over N5 b”, he added.
The witness also added that all their investigations led them to their branch in Abakaliki.
“We checked the CCtv footage and discovered that everything thing was wiped then we noticed that something was wrong”.
“During investigations, everything was pointing at the first defendant, who admitted that he used a private laptop in connecting with the bank’s server through which they gained access to the bank’s data”.
Agboola told the court that the use of personal laptops wasn’t allowed in the Banks policy.
The EFCC prosecuting counsel tendered in evidence the petitions from the bank which the first, second, third and forth defendants counsel did not object.
Tukur further prayed to the court for another date as he has other documents he needs to tender through the witness.
Justice Fadipe adjourned to May 20, 2025 for continuation of trial.
Some of the charges reads: “Olajide Ogunmoroti, Michael Igbomina, David Onyeike and Moses Iruolaje sometime in 2023, with a dishonest intent, stole and converted for your own use the sum of N3,473,166,731.00 Property of the Bank PIc.”
“Olajide Ogunmoroti, Michael Igbomina, David Onyeike and Moses Iruolaje sometime in 2023,with a dishonest intent, stole and converted for your own use the sum of N2,253,827,379.23 Property of the Bank ”
