Bright Evobai and Okechukwu Okolo, former employees of Intercontinental Bank Plc (now Access Bank), today, June 5, 2014 were sentenced to fourty three years imprisonment over false pretence and forgery by the Kano State High Court.
They ex-bankers who were arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on November 27, 2012 on an eight count charge conspired and defrauded the bank of Nine Million Seven Hundred Thousand Naira by using stolen letterhead paper belonging to Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital Kano and forged the signatures of four designated signatories including one of their superiors at the bank, to siphon fund from the hospital’s fixed deposit account.
The convicts who deposited the money into five different accounts to avoid being caught pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.
In the course of trial, the prosecution called five witnesses to prove its case.
Justice Aboki, in his ruling, found them guilty as charged and sentenced both to seven years imprisonment on counts 1,2,3,4,5,6 with no option of fine while the convicts are to serve six months imprisonment each, on count seven and eight with an option N50,000 (Fifty Thousand Naira) and N20, 000 (Twenty Thousand Naira) fine respectively.
The sentences are to run concurrently.
The convicts were also ordered to pay N9.7million bank to the bank.
Wilson Uwujaren
Head, Media & Publicity
5th June, 2014
