An Ikeja Special Offences Court yesterday heard how an ex-staff member of a second generation bank Olajide Ogunmoroti and his cohorts allegedly stole the sum of N5.726 billion belonging to the bank.
A witness, Abdulmajeed Agboola, a staff member of the bank, who has had nine years working experience, gave the narration while giving evidence before Justice Olubunmi Abike-Fadipe.
Led in evidence by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) prosecuting counsel, Abdulhamid L. Tukur, the witness told the court that the first defendant, Olajide Ogunmoroti, was an employee of 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 Abakaliki.
“There was a fraudulent overdraft limits maintained on our customers’ accounts which enabled them to make withdrawals from the unfunded accounts.
“We observed that suspicious overdraft maintained on customers’ accounts which allowed them to access funds and transferred to accounts maintained in both the bank and other banks.
“We identified customers whose accounts benefitted from the suspicious overdraft maintenance with total exposure of over N5b,” 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 was wiped then we noticed that something was wrong”.
“During investigations, everything was pointing at the first defendant, which he 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 was not allowed in the bank’s 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 to.
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.
