A former cashier officer with Fidelity Bank, Ado branch, Ado Ekiti, Michael Adedayo Ihinolurinjon, has been sentenced to ten years imprisonment.
His offence: He stole money from the bank’s vault and diverted customers’ deposits for personal use.
The sentence was handed down by an Ekiti State High Court presided over by Justice Abiodun Adesodun on Thursday.
He was found guilty of a two-count charge of stealing in a criminal case filed against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ibadan zonal office.
The offence, according to the charge sheet, was contrary to Section 390 (g) of the Criminal Code Laws Cap 16, Laws of Ekiti State, 2012.
The bank had written a petition to the EFCC alleging that while still a staffer, Ihinolurinjon, stole a sum of N8,891,000.00 from its vault, and also failed to remit a total of N7,251,600 he collected from customers to the bank’s account.
“Our preliminary review showed that Michael fraudulently diverted the sums of N8,891,000.00 and N7,251,600.00 of the branch vault and customers’ cash respectively. The cash deposit of N7,251,600.00 received by Michael from various customers between 1/9/16 and 19/9/16 were neither posted to their respective accounts nor the cash accounted for,” the bank stated in its petitioned dated October 17, 2016.
The bank also accused the cashier officer, Ihinolurinjon, of absconding from duty “upon sighting one of the customers whose cash he had fraudulently diverted.”
The Commission, following the petition went into a full scale investigation after which the accused was originally charged with obtaining through false pretence in a one-count charge filed in 2017.
The charge was later amended to a two-count, bordering on stealing, upon which he was re-arraigned on June 24, 2019.
The EFCC while prosecuting the case through its counsel, Mr. Abdulresheed Lanre Suleman, called nine witnesses and also tendered several exhibits.
The presiding judge after listening to arguments on both sides, found the defendant guilty as charged, and sentenced him to five years imprisonment on each of the two counts to run concurrently.
The convict was however given an option of fine of N100,000, on each of the counts and also ordered to pay a sum of N7 million as restitution to Fidelity Bank Plc, the petitioner in the case.
