Justice Ibrahim Mairiga of the Kebbi State High Court on Thursday sentenced three former employees of FinBank Plc (acquired by First City Monument Bank Plc in 2011), to 91 years’ imprisonment.
The convicts – Suleiman Ibrahim Musa, Bilyaminu Usman and Lawal Suleiman – had been arraigned on 16 counts bordering on forgery, theft and criminal breach of trust by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
The trio, who worked at the Birnin-Kebbi branch of the bank in Kebbi State, were first arraigned on July 21, 2010, and had pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Musa, who was then the head of operations, was accused of defrauding the bank of N101, 707,000 while Usman and Suleiman were said to have connived to steal the sum of N6, 627,500 and N6, 267,500 respectively from the bank.
According to the EFCC, the convicts committed the crimes between 2008 and 2010, adding that they carried out the act by debiting the bank’s customers after carrying out unauthorised withdrawals on their accounts.
They were reportedly arrested after several customers complained to the bank, alleging fraudulent deductions from their bank accounts.
After five years of trial, Justice Mairiga found the defendants guilty of the charges and sentenced them accordingly.
The judge said, “Considering the amount involved and the weight of the evidence presented before the court by the prosecution, which was never challenged by the defence, it shows that their wrongful act caused a great injury to the bank.
“I therefore, find the accused persons guilty as charged, and so convict and sentence them to 55 years, seven years and 29 years imprisonment respectively without an option of fine, with the jail term to serve concurrently”.
The judge also ordered the convicts to return the stolen money to the bank.
