- *AS ANOTHER STAFF JAILED FOR FRAUD
* CUSTOMERS IN PANIC WITHDRAWAL
It is no longer news that staffers of UBA Plc have perfected different ways of defrauding their customers,the news currently making the rounds and at the same time baffling a lot of people in the industry is how the sum of N381 million paid into a bank account that had been dormant for years cleared within 12 hours?This is the puzzle detectives from force headquarters are trying to unravel, which has led to the arrest of a bank manager, two company chief executives and five other suspects.
Biznesswatch.com gathered that the suspects, sometime in March 2011, at Garki Abuja, conspired to commit felony, criminal misappropriation, criminal breach of trust and cheating.
The sources further disclosed that the suspects fraudulently and dishonestly induced one Mustapha Yakubu Ibrahim to deliver the sum of N381 million for the supply of export proceeds valued at $2.5million, which they claimed they had in their foreign bank account.
Police investigation also revealed that the victim was tricked into paying the money into a United Bank for Africa account as an equivalent of the $2.5 million to be paid to him.
The sources revealed that as soon as the victim paid the money into the UBA account which had been dormant for years, the bank manager, in connivance with the suspects, immediately cleared the money without paying the said sum of $2.5 million.
In a criminal charge filed against the suspects and UBA at a Federal High Court in Abuja by the Inspector General of Police, who is the complainant, it was alleged that the suspects defrauded Ibrahim of $2.5 million.
A case of one fraud too many, you will recall that staffers of UBA from different branches have been arrested at different times for fraud. Fraud cases rocking the bank is growing at an alarming rate and this giving the management of the bank sleepless night on how the seemingly challenging situation can be brought under control. Sequel to the fraud case recently experience in the bank’s Kaduna branch, biznesswatch.com reliably gathered that the bank’s customers are surprised by lack of trust and contemplating withdrawing their deposits.
The story is spreading fast. Justice Bello Lawal of the Kaduna State High Court, Zaria, Kaduna state on Wednesday June 19, 2013 sentenced one David Danjuma Gwani who was arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on a 2-count charge of theft to six months imprisonment on each count and ordered him to restitute the victim to the tune of N250, 000.
The accused person who is an employee of United Bank for Africa, Samaru Branch, Zaria, used his position as relationship officer to suppress the accounts of customers by stealing the sum of N2,948,040 (Two Million, Nine Hundred and Forty Eight Thousand, Forty Naira Only) from the accounts between September 2011 and June 2012.
The charges read; “That you David Danjuma Gwani between September 2011 and June 2012, in Zaria within the jurisdiction of the High Court of Justice Kaduna State while being an employee of United Bank for Africa Plc committed theft by stealing the sum of N745, 000 (Seven Hundred and Forty Five Thousand Naira Only) in possession of the said United Bank for Africa and that you thereby committed an offence punishable under section 289 of the Penal Code. “That you David Danjuma Gwani between September 2011 and June 2012, in Zaria within the jurisdiction of the High Court of Justice Kaduna State while being an employee of United Bank for Africa Plc committed theft by stealing the sum of NN2, 203,040 (Two Million Two Hundred and Three Thousand Forty Naira Only) in possession of the said United Bank for Africa and that you thereby committed an offence punishable under section 289 of the Penal Code”.The accused person pleaded guilty to the charges and was convicted accordingly.
