By Uzoma Akobundu
Ecobank Nigeria Plc and its staff were on Thursday arraigned before Justice Saliu Saidu of a federal high court in Lagos by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), in connection with fraud.
While Ecobank Nigeria Plc was the 1st defendant, its staff Anieka Udoh was arraigned as the 2nd defendant on a five count charge of Advance Fee Fraud and other related offences.
According to the charge sheet, Udoh was alleged to have, while a staff of Ecobank Plc, negligently failed to exercise due diligence in relation to conduct of financial transactions with Major General Mohammed Umaru, by fraudulently opening and operating an account number 0015052989 with Ecobank Plc in the name of the said Umaru without the knowledge and authority of the customer.
He was also alleged to have on January 28, 2016 at Lagos, fraudulently withdrawn and converted the sum of $10,000. 00 from Umaru’s Ecobank Domiciliary account number 43336361424 without his knowledge and authority and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 7(3) (a) and (b) of the Advance Fee Fraud and other Fraud Related Offences Act.
Ecobank and Udoh were alleged to have in 2009 at Lagos, negligently failed to exercise due diligence in relation to conduct of financial transactions with Umaru by fraudulently converting his Ecobank MasterCard account number 0015052989 from debit card to credit card and consequently debited Umaru’s account in the sum of over $50,000 without his knowledge and authority, thereby committed an offence contrary to section 7(3) and (b) of the same Act.
Also they were said to have sometimes in 2016 fraudulently converted Umaru’s Domiciliary account in the bank to Naira account without his knowledge and permission and consequently left a debit of N 9.2 million in the said account.
After listening to the charge, Udoh who was alone in the dock pleaded not guilty for himself in all the counts.
After he pleaded not guilty, the prosecutor, Bilkisu Buhari urged the court to remand the second defendant in prison custody pending trial as well as to fix a date for trial their trial.
However, counsel to the the defendant, O. J Owoh pleaded with the court for a short adjournment to enable him come up with a proper bail application.
Justice Saidu ordered the defendant to be remanded in prison custody and adjourned the matter till March 12 for hearing on bail application and possibly, trial.