Judge Olubusola Okunuga of the Ikeja Special Offenses Court sentenced Abubakar Sani to a year in prison yesterday for fraudulently converting N1,133,808,604.31.
After Sani entered a guilty plea, Justice Okunuga found him guilty.
On the basis of amended information dated April 30, 2025, the convicted individual was arraigned before the court.
In her ruling, Justice Okunuga stated that she did not waste the court’s time because she had taken into account the defendant’s status as a first-time offender.
“The defendant having pleaded guilty to the amended information and admitting the review of facts and exhibits tendered by the prosecutor is hereby convicted and sentenced to one year imprisonment with an option of N1million fine.
The judge mandated that the convicted individual give the Federal Government of Nigeria the money that was discovered in his Access and Keystone bank accounts.
Fanen Anum, the prosecuting attorney for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), informed the court during the fact-finding and sentencing phase that the Commission received a written petition from Lotus Bank sometime in July 2024, alleging that approximately 718 customers had committed fraudulent acts by taking advantage of the bank’s E-bill pay platform malfunction to make unlawful and fraudulent transfers.
“The bank as a result lost over N1,133,808,604.31 to this multiple transfers to other financial institutions beyond the balances in their respective accounts”Fanen added.
Fanen further informed the court that the defendant received N16,684,018:00, some of which he moved to his brother’s Access Bank account.
“My Lord the sum of N4,182,406.54 was traced to the Access bank account number 1623542076 of Usman Sani, the elder brother of the defendant and also the sum of N1,099,485.18 was traced to the Keystone Bank account of the defendant with account number 6038086328 with the name Abubakar Sani which were also frozen in the cause of investigation”
The EFCC prosecutor presented the defendant’s extrajudicial statement, his older brother’s Access bank statement, and the defendant’s Keystone bank account statement as evidence to back up his fact-finding. Ogunlaye, the defense attorney, did not raise an objection.
