A staff of First Marina Trust Limited, Mr. Anthony Onyeoghane, has testified against his former co- worker, before an Ikeja High Court over an allegation of N1 billion fraud.
The defendants were alleged to have conspired among themselves to steal, which is contrary to the criminal law of Lagos State 2011.
Onyeoghane , an information and technology expert in the company, told Justice Oyefeso that the 1st defendant (Adeyemi Oluwaseun) and 2nd (Suleiman Yusuf Obhakume) conspired with others outside the organisation to defraud the company’s customers.
He made the statement during cross examination by the defence counsel. He said: “My Lord, during the course of interrogating the first defendant, he confessed to the committee that he was the one that gave out those account numbers of customers.”
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However, asked by the defence counsel whether they were able to trace the money to the 1st defendant account, he replied: “Yes, they found the stolen money, which was traced to the 1st defendant’s accounts, ” adding: “We found out that over N1 billion was missing.” Asked how the defendants were able to defraud the company. the witness said: “The reason they were able to defraud the company was because the 1st defendant is the Relationship Manager, dealing directly with the customers themselves.
“The 2nd defendant was the Treasury Relationship Manager/ Marketer, who should have been able to check the activities of the 1st defendant where all the crime was committed.
“Once the 2nd defendant gives the okay on a particular instruction from a customer, every other person will automatically assume it is the customer who gave the instructions.”
Meanwhile, when Onyeoghane was asked whether the 2nd defendant has powers to approve transactionshe said: “My Lord, the 2nd defendant has power to approve transactions. If he does not confirm that the email came from the customer’s regular email with his signature, date and a “email confirm”, the customer’s instructions will be be treated
“They allegedly conspired among themselves to forge emails of one customer, which on the company’s record was lanreishola@yahoo.com while the fraudulent email used was lanreishola1@yahoo.com.
“The report from the committee we submitted to the management stated clearly that there was fraud committed by the 1st and 2nd defendants against the company.”
Mr. A.B.C. Ozioko, the prosecution counsel for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), assured the court that PW1 would be present in court for continuation of trial.
The matter was adjourned to the 27th of January 2020 for the continuation of trial and hearing of the pending application.
