The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC has handed over the sum of N802,420,000 million recovered from one Ojo Eghosa Kingsley to First Bank Nigeria Plc.
First Bank had in a petition to the EFCC alleged that system glitches led it to erroneously credit the account of Kingsley, a customer of the bank with the sum of N1billion.
However, EFCC said its investigation revealed that upon the receipt of the money, Kingsley transferred a good measure of it to the bank accounts of his mother, Itohan Ojo and that of his sister, Edith Okoro Osaretin.
He also used part of the money for completion of his building project and the funding of a new flamboyant lifestyle.
However, with the recovery of the money from the identified bank accounts, the officials of Benin Zonal Directorate of EFCC handed it over to officials of First Bank Nigeria Plc on Monday,
Speaking while handing over the money, the Acting Director, Benin Zonal Directorate of the EFCC, Deputy Commander of the EFCC, DCE Sa’ad Hanafi Sa’ad, stated that the anti-graft agency 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.
