Abubakar Sani, has pleaded guilty to a theft offence pressed against him and has been sentenced to one year imprisonment for an alleged theft and illegal transfer of monies from Lotus Bank due to a technical glitch in Lagos.
This followed his arraignment on an amended information dated April 30, 2025, before the court.
Justice Olubusola Okunuga of the Special Offences Court, Ikeja said she had considered that the defendant is a first time offender and did not waste the court’s time.
Delivering the judgement, she said: “The defendant, having pleaded guilty to the amended information and admitting the review of facts and exhibits tendered by the Prosecutor, is thereby convicted and sentenced to one year imprisonment with an option of a One Million Naira fine.
She added, “Also, he shall forfeit the money found in the Access and Keystone bank account to the Federal Government of Nigeria.”
During the proceedings of the case, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC Prosecuting Counsel Fanen Anum in his review of facts told the court that sometime in July, 2024, the Commission received a written petition from Lotus Bank alleging some fraudulent acts from about 718 customers who took undue advantage of the malfunction of the bank’s E-bill pay platform to make fraudulent and illegal transfers.
Continuing Fanen said, “The bank, as a result, lost over N1,133,808,604.31 to these multiple transfers to other financial institutions beyond the balances in their respective accounts.”
The Prosecutor also told the court that the defendant benefited the sum of N16,684,018,000, which he transferred some of the monies to his brother’s Access bank account.
“My Lord the sum of N4,182,406.54 was traced to the Access bank account number 1623542076 of Usman Sani the elder brother of the defendant and also the sum of N1,099,485.18 was traced to the Keystone Bank account of the defendant with account number 6038086328 with the name Abubakar Sani and also frozen in the cause of investigation.”
The EFCC Prosecutor tenders in evidence the extrajudicial statement of the defendant, the Access bank statement of his elder brother and the Keystone bank account statement of the defendant as exhibits to support his review of facts.
The Defence Counsel Ogunlaye did not counter the proceeding.
