A former staff of First Bank of Nigeria Limited, Oreoluwa Adesakin, was sentenced to 98 years in prison by Justice Muniru Olagunju of the Oyo State High Court for fraud, on Monday, September 28, 2020.
This came after she was prosecuted by the Ibadan Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC), on 14-count charges, bordering on stealing, forgery and fraudulent accounting.
Adesakin was alleged to have committed financial fraud against her employers to the tune of N49,320,652.32 (Forty-nine Million, Three Hundred and Twenty Thousand, Six Hundred and Fifty-two Naira, Thirty-two Kobo), and additional $368,203.00 (Three Hundred and Sixty-eight Thousand, Two Hundred and Three United States Dollars) belonging to the bank which she converted to her personal use.
The convict was arraigned April 4, 2014 by the EFCC following a conclusion of investigations against her which arose from a petition from her former employer, dated December 18, 2013.
The bank alleged in the petition that Adesakin, as its Money Transfer Operator, saddled with the responsibility of effecting payments through Western Union Money Transfer and Money Gram platforms, fraudulently manipulated accounting and withdrew the total sums of N49,320,652.32 and another $368,203.00 for herself, which the bank only uncovered while reviewing its internal account.
Also, the EFCC was able to establish that the convict used part of the proceeds of her crime to acquire landed properties in different parts of Oyo State.
As Oreoluwa Adesakin had pleaded not guilty to all the charges against her, that necessitated her trial where prosecution counsel, Usman Murtala in arguing his case, presented every vital document and witnesses which nailed the convict.
The judge noted that the EFCC amassed a pool of incontrovertible evidence against the convict and did a diligent investigation and prosecution. He pronounced Adesakin guilty of all the charges, sentencing her to seven years in prison without an option of fine on each of the 14 counts, which will run concurrently.
Apart from the jail term, the convict is also to restitute her former employer, First Bank, through the EFCC, all the money she stole.
