A 29-year-old former staff of First City Monument Bank, Adebayo Ayokunle, has been arrested and charged before a Lagos Magistrate’s Court for allegedly withdrawing the sum of N30 million from his employer’s account and converted it to his use just one year after he secured the job and escaped.
The suspect, who fled after the fraud, was attached to the E-Settlement Unit of the Bank, Akoka branch, Lagos State.
According to the police, nemesis caught up with the defendant when the Management of the Bank audited the account of the Akoka branch and uncovered the fraud and reported the matter to the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Lion Building Division, Lagos Island, Lagos.
The DPO, it was gathered, directed his men, led by Inspector Akubor Hassan, to fish out the defendant anywhere he might be hiding.
The Police, after days of Intelligence gathering, tracked the defendant to a hideout in Lagos and arrested him.
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The defendant, a resident of Agric area of Ikorodu, Lagos, was charged before the Tinubu Magistrate’s Court, Lagos on one count charge of stealing.
Police Prosecuting Counsel, Inspector Hafsat Ajibode, told the Court in the charge marked: M/08/2022, that the defendant committed the offence between February and March 2019 at the E-Settlement Unit of the bank, Akoka branch, Lagos, just one year after he secured the job.
Ajibode informed the Court that the defendant betrayed the trust reposed on him by his employer as a Settlement Officer at the Akoka branch of the bank and fraudulently stole the sum of N30 million from his employer’s account and escaped before he was arrested.
She said the offences the defendant committed were contrary to section 280 and punishable under section 287(7) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.
The defendant, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.
The Magistrate, Gbajumo Ayoku, granted him N2 million bail with two sureties in like sum.
Ayoku adjourned the case till May 18, 2022 for commencement of trial and ordered that the defendant be kept at the Ikoyi correctional facility till he perfects the bail conditions.