Court Jails 2 Ex-Bankers Over N1.2m Theft In Kaduna

The Kaduna Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has secured the conviction and sentencing of Obadofin Daniel Bamise and Hadiza Oyiza Yakubu, before Justice A.A. Bello of the Kaduna State High Court, sitting in Kaduna for theft.

According to a statement posted on the verified Facebook page of EFCC, both convicts are former officials of a new generation bank. They were prosecuted on separate one-count charges of theft.

Obadofin’s charge read: “That you, Obadofin Bamise Daniel sometime between the 5th of November, 2024 and 23rd of January, 2025 in Kaduna, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, while being an employee of Access Bank Plc did in your capacity as an employee committed theft in the sum of N433,000.00 (Four Hundred and Thirty-Three Thousand Naira only) being property in possession of Access Bank Plc and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 274 of the Kaduna State Penal Code Law, 2017 and punishable under same Law.”

That of Hadiza read: “That you, Hadiza Oyiza Yakubu sometimes between the 5th of November, 2024 and 23rd of January, 2025 in Kaduna, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, while being an employee of Access Bank Plc did in your capacity as an employee committed theft in the sum of N806,000.00 (Eight Hundred and Six Thousand, Eight Hundred Naira only) being property in possession of Access Bank Plc and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 274 of the Kaduna State Penal Code Law, 2017 and punishable under same Law.”

They both pleaded “guilty,” following which the prosecution counsel, Moses Arumemi, urged the court to convict and sentence them accordingly.

Justice Bello, thereafter, convicted and sentenced both of them to seven years imprisonment each or to pay N50,000 fine each, respectively.

Investigations showed that the convicts performed unauthorised withdrawals on the accounts of 305 customers of the bank, who were beneficiaries of the federal government’s Palliative Scheme, totaling N7,842,700.00. They posted the unauthorised withdrawals to the Palliative Scheme’s coordinators’ accounts.