By Chucks Okafor
The Kaduna State High Court has convicted two former
employees of Access Bank Plc for illegally withdrawing money linked to a
federal government social intervention account.
The convicts, Obadofin Bamise and Hadiza Yakubu, were
prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over fraudulent
transactions involving funds meant for palliative beneficiaries.
Delivering judgment, Justice A. A. Bello of the Kaduna State
High Court sentenced the two former bank officials to seven years imprisonment
each after they admitted guilt to the charge brought against them. The court,
however, provided an alternative option of a ₦50,000 fine for each defendant.
According to details presented before the court, the fraud
took place between November 2024 and January 2025 while both individuals were
still employees of the bank and had access to customer accounts.
Investigators disclosed that Bamise illegally moved about ₦433,000, while Yakubu was accused of
diverting roughly ₦806,000
from accounts connected to the programme.
The anti-graft agency further revealed that its wider
investigation uncovered a much larger operation affecting hundreds of
beneficiaries under the federal government palliative scheme.
Prosecutors told the court that approximately 305
beneficiaries were impacted by the unauthorised withdrawals, with the total
amount allegedly siphoned through accounts linked to coordinators of the
programme estimated at about ₦7.84
million.
Following their guilty pleas, the court accepted the
evidence submitted by the prosecution and proceeded with sentencing.
The development has again drawn attention to rising cases of
internal fraud within Nigeria’s banking industry, especially incidents
involving staff members exploiting privileged access to customers’ financial
information and banking platforms.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has repeatedly
raised concerns over insider abuse in financial institutions, warning that poor
monitoring systems and lapses in internal controls continue to expose customers
and public funds to fraud.
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