Court convicts former bank staff to 17 years imprisonment for N93.2m fraud

A High Court in Kano State on Monday sentenced a former banker, Rabiu Dawaki, to 17 years imprisonment having been convicted on charges of conspiracy and criminal breach of trust.

The presiding judge of the Kano State High Court, Justice Dije Aboki, in her judgement on Monday, found Dawaki guilty, convicted him to jail, while ordering the convict to restitute N93,232,500.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Media Officer, Wilson Uwujaren, in a statement, indicated that Dawaki was arraigned alongside two others – Abdullahi Rano and Samuel Obende – who are now deceased on 28 counts of conspiracy and criminal breach of trust.

It was  disclosed that the three defendants, all former employees of an old generation bank, were responsible for receiving, processing, and distributing money to all their bank’s cash centres across Kano, Katsina, and Jigawa States.

They were, however, said to have betrayed the trust of their employers and conspired among themselves to defraud the bank by diverting the funds to their own use.

The convict, alongside his co-defendants, reportedly altered figures to show that they made cash deliveries to designated branches, but the monies were never delivered.

On arraignment on February 26, 2015, Dawaki and his co-defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges. Their prosecution, then commenced in earnest.

During ther court trials, Dawaki’s co-defendants died and their names were, thus, deleted from the charge.

Justice Aboki found Dawaki guilty of seven counts of the charge and convicted him accordingly.

The Judge, however, acquitted him on 21 counts.

It was highlighted that Justice Aboki convicted the defendant on count one which bordered on conspiracy and counts two, 11, 22, 24, 25, and 26, all of which bordered on criminal breach of trust.

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On counts one, 11, 22, 24, 25, and 26, the convict was sentenced to two years imprisonment and a fine of N200,000 on each.

On count two, he was sentenced to five years imprisonment and a fine of N200,000.

Justice Aboki noted that sentences on counts two and 11 were to run consecutively while counts one, 22, 24, 25, and 26 would run concurrently.