The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has declared wanted some members of staff of the First City Monument Bank (FCMB) over an alleged multi-million naira customer deposit fraud.
With their whereabouts unknown, the Nigeria Police has secured an arrest warrant from a magistrate court in Lagos to effect the arrest of the suspected fraudulent staff fingered in the heist.
The names of the bankers as declared wanted by the Police include: Linda Natufe Chekwube, Matthew Akpan Benny, Juwon Faromoh, Oluwasoji Ajetumobi, Ogunlaja Olasukanmi Ganiyu, Oshiojum Chibuzor Wilson, Akanaga Christian Chika, Nelson Omuzagha and Adeyemi Omitogun.
The suspects were alleged to have duped depositors of their hard earned money through numerous crafty means. Ogunlaja and Chekwube were found to have allegedly authorised overdraft totalling three hundred and eighty eight million naira (N388 million).
Reports have it that another duo allegedly transferred customers’ monies to other accounts and closed the accounts without consent or authorisation from the accounts’ holders while others allegedly stole customers’ deposits undetected by the bank.
Only recently, a staff of the bank, Adejare Sonde (now relieved of his job), was arraigned on 12-count charge on allegedly stealing N124 million of a depositor’s account.
The case was instituted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission at a State High Court sitting in Abeokuta, Ogun State. Sonde was accused of using his position as the account officer to a micro-finance bank to steal N124 million from the customer’s account. The petitioner, EFCC, alleged that Sonde collected cash from the micro-finance bank on several occasions totalling N124 million which were not credited into the customer’s account.
Further investigations revealed that the defendant (Sonde) allegedly doctored emails which he sent to the micro-finance bank as monthly statements of account, while there was no remittance in the account.
In the same vein, two officials of the bank, identified as Walter Ekomaye and Ebenezer Adelowo, were also arraigned on January 19, 2018 for allegedly making illegal withdrawal of N23 million from customers’ accounts and stealing N17.5 million from Automated Teller Machine (ATM) deposits.
