The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Thursday, May 15, 2025, presented its first prosecution witness, PW1, Abdulmajeed Agboola, a staff of Access Bank Plc, in the alleged N5,726,994, 110.23( Five Billion, Seven Hundred and Twenty Six Million, Nine Hundred and Ninety Four Thousand, One Hundred and Ten Naira, Twenty three kobo) fraud involving a former employee of the bank, Olajide Ogunmoroti, , Michael Igbomina, David Onyeike and Moses Iruolaje before Justice O.O.Abike-Fadipe of the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos. The defendants are being prosecuted on an amended 10-count charge bordering on stealing, retention of proceeds of crime, money laundering , obtaining credit by false pretence and unauthorized access to computer materials. One of the charges reads: “ That you, Olajide Ogunmoroti, Michael Igbomina, David Onyeike and Moses Iruolaje, sometime in 2023, with a dishonest intent, stole and converted for your own use the sum of N2,253,827,379.23, being property of Access Bank Plc., thereby committed an offence of Stealing, contrary to Sections 280 and punishable under section 280 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.” Another charge reads: “ That you, “Olajide Ogunmoroti, Michael Igbomina, David Onyeike and Moses Iruolaje, sometime in 2023, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, with a dishonest intent, stole and converted for your own use the sum of N3,473,166,731.00 (Three Billion, Four Hundred and Seventy- Three Million, One Hundred and Sixty-Six Thousand, Seven Hundred and Thirty One Naira) Property of Access Bank PIc., thereby committed an offence of Stealing, contrary to Sections 280 and punishable under section 287 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.” Led in evidence by the prosecution counsel, Abdulhamid L. Tukur, the witness told the court that the first defendant, Ogunmoroti , was the ICT representative of the Abakaliki branch of the bank. He told the court that there was a glitch in the bank’s server, which was traced to the Abakaliki branch during investigations. According to him, “There was a fraudulent overdraft limit maintained on our customers’ accounts, which enabled them to make withdrawals from the unfunded accounts. We observed those suspicious overdraft limits maintained on customers’ accounts, which allowed them to access funds and transferred to accounts maintained in both Access Bank and other banks. We identified customers whose accounts benefitted from the suspicious overdraft maintenance with total exposure of over N5bn.” Giving further evidence, the witness said when the CCTV footage was checked, it was discovered that everything had been wiped out. “During investigations, everything was pointing at the first defendant. He admitted that he used a private laptop in connection with the bank’s server through which they gained access to the bank’s data,” he further told the court. He, however, told the court that the use of personal laptops wasn’t allowed in the bank’s policy. The prosecution counsel, thereafter, sought to tender in evidence the petitions from the bank. There was no objection by the defence counsel and the document was admitted by the court. Justice Fadipe adjourned the case till May 20, 2025 for the continuation of trial.
