The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has presented its first prosecution witness (PW1), Abdulmajeed Agboola, a staff member of Access Bank Plc, in the ongoing trial of four former employees of the bank accused of N5.7 billion fraud.

The defendants: Olajide Ogunmoroti, Michael Igbomina, David Onyeike, and Moses Iruolaje are standing trial before Justice Olubunmi Abike-Fadipe at the Lagos State Special Offences Court in Ikeja.

They are standing trial on an amended 10-count charge bordering on stealing, retention of proceeds of crime, money laundering, obtaining credit by false pretence, and unauthorised access to computer materials.

Part of the charge reads: “That you, Olajide Ogunmoroti, Michael Igbomina, David Onyeike and Moses Iruolaje, sometime in 2023, with dishonest intent, stole and converted to your own use the sum of N2,253,827,379.23, property of Access Bank Plc, thereby committing an offence of stealing contrary to Section 280 and punishable under Section 280 of the Criminal Code Law of Lagos State, 2015.”

Another count alleges theft of N3,473,166,731.00, also belonging to Access Bank, in violation of Section 287 of the same law.

Testifying in court, Agboola stated that the first defendant, Ogunmoroti, served as the ICT representative at the bank’s Abakaliki branch.

He revealed that a technical glitch in the bank’s server traced to that branch led to the discovery of fraudulent overdraft limits.

“There was a fraudulent overdraft limit maintained on our customers’ accounts, which enabled them to withdraw funds from unfunded accounts.

“We traced over N5 billion in suspicious transactions transferred to both Access Bank and other bank accounts,” Agboola said.

He further told the court that CCTV footage from the relevant period had been wiped, but investigations pointed to Ogunmoroti. He testified that the defendant admitted using a private laptop to connect to the bank’s server, which facilitated the unauthorised access to bank data, adding that such use of personal devices violated the bank’s policy.

The prosecution, led by Abdulhamid Tukur, tendered a petition from the bank as evidence. With no objection from the defence, the document was admitted by the court.

Justice Abike-Fadipe adjourned further trial to May 20, 2025.

Culled Guardian