The Benin Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has handed over the sum of N802,420,000( Eight Hundred and Two Million, Four Hundred and Twenty Thousand Naira only) to First Bank Nigeria Plc.
The money was recovered from a suspect, Ojo Eghosa Kingsley who took unlawful possession of over N1.3 billion belonging to the bank.
The bank, in its petition to the EFCC, had alleged that system glitches led it to erroneously credit the account of Kingsley, a customer of the bank with the said amount.
The Commission in its investigation discovered that the suspect, upon the receipt of the money, transferred a good measure of it to the bank accounts of his mother, Itohan Ojo and that of his sister, Edith Okoro Osaretin, and committed part of the money to completion of his building project and the funding of a new flamboyant lifestyle.
With the recovery of the money from the identified bank accounts, the EFCC handed it over in drafts to First Bank.
The Acting Director, Benin Zonal Directorate of the EFCC, Deputy Commander of the EFCC, DCE Sa’ad Hanafi Sa’ad, while handing over the money, stated that the EFCC will continue to discharge its mandate effectively in the overall interests of the society.
“The EFCC Establishment Act empowers us to trace and recover proceeds of crime and restitute the victim. In this case, First Bank was the victim and that is exactly what we have done. We will continue to discharge our duties to ensure that fraudsters do not benefit from fraud and that economic and financial crimes are nipped in the bud,” he said.
In his response, Olalere Sunday Ajayi, Business Manager, First Bank, Benin, who received the drafts on behalf of the bank, commended the EFCC for the swiftness and the professionalism it brought to bear in the handling of the matter and expressed the bank’s gratitude to the Commission.
He described the EFCC as one of Nigeria’s most effective and reliable institutions.
Kingsley and all other suspects in the matter have been charged to court for stealing by the EFCC.
