Court jails 2 ex-bankers for withdrawing N1.2m from customers’ accounts

The Kaduna State High Court sitting in Kaduna has sentenced two former bankers, Obadofin Daniel Bamise and Hadiza Oyiza Yakubu, to prison over theft.

The former officials of a new generation bank were prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) 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 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 Yakubu 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 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.”

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

Justice A.A. Bello thereafter convicted and sentenced the former bankers to seven years imprisonment each or to pay N50,000 fine, respectively.

The EFCC stated that investigations revealed 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, totalling N7,842,700.

The EFCC said the convicts posted the unauthorised withdrawals to the Palliative Scheme’s coordinators’ accounts.