A staff member of First City Monument Bank (FCMB), Adebayo Ayokunle has been charged before a Lagos Magistrate’s Court for allegedly withdrawing the sum of N30 million from the account of a customer of the bank and converting the same to personal use barely a year after he was employed by the bank.
The alleged criminal act of the 29-years-old Ayokunle, who worked in the E-Settlement Unit of the Akoko, Lagos branch of the bank, was uncovered when the management of the branch conducted an audit. On discovery of the alleged fraud, the management promptly reported the same to the Lion Building Divisional Police Officer ( DPO), Lagos Island, Lagos.
The DPO, it was gathered, directed his men, led by Inspector Akubor Hassan to fish out the defendant who reportedly went into hiding after the alleged fraud was uncovered.
The Police were said to have tracked the defendant to a hideout in Lagos following days of Intelligence gathering and promptly arrested him.
The defendant, a resident of the Agric area of Ikorodu, Lagos, was charged before the Tinubu Magistrate’s Court, Lagos on a one-count charge of stealing.
Police prosecutor, Inspector Hafsat Ajibode, told the court presided over by Mrs Gbajumo Ayoku, that the defendant committed the offence between February and March 2019 at the E-Settlement Unit of the Akoka, Lagos branch of the bank just one year after he secured the job.
In charge number M/08/2022, 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 and the Magistrate Ayoku granted him bail in the sum of N2 million with two sureties in like sum.
Magistrate Ayoku adjourned the case till 18th May 2022 for commencement of trial and ordered that the defendant be kept at the Ikoyi Correctional Centre till he can perfect the bail conditions.