The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibadan zonal Office, has arrested a sales agent with Fidelity Bank Plc, Mr. Olumide Agbabiaka, for allegedly stealing N137million belonging to a customer.
This was contained in a statement signed yesterday by the commission’s spokesperson, Mr Tony Orilade in Ibadan.
Mr. Tony said Agbabiaka’s arrest was due to a petition filed by the bank’s Regional Security Officer and the Cluster Control and Compliance Manager.
He said it was alleged that the suspect suppressed, diverted and stole the money from a customer’s personal corporate account in Ibadan.
He also said the offence was committed by the alleged suspect between January 2017 and July.
He said the suspect, who was the account officer attached to the customer, had been visiting the business premises of the victim weekly to collect cash, adding that the suspect was to remit same to the customer’s accounts, domiciled in the bank’s branch.
He said the suspect, instead of depositing the money at different times, remitted only a portion lamenting that in many occasions the suspect had diverted the whole sum to his personal use.
“In order to cover its criminal acts, the suspect, according to the petition, would rather issue fictitious bank slips to deceive the customer that he truly deposited the sums. “This continued until the customer reviewed the statement of his account and reconciled same with the cash collection register,” he said.
Mr. Tony also disclosed that Agbabiaka’s alleged fraudulent deeds were later discovered prompting the bank to put up the petition against him.
“So far, the EFCC investigators have established a prima facie case of diversion and stealing against the suspect. “Further investigations also revealed that he had used the suppressed sums to build houses, purchase cars, invest in fixed deposits and insurance policies,” he added.
Orilade said the suspect also gave part of the stolen money to people around him as friendly loans.
He said that some of the items had been recovered and registered as exhibits, adding that Agbabiaka would be charged to court after investigations are concluded.
Good journalism costs a lot of money, only good journalism can ensure the possibility of a good society, accountability democracy and a transparent government.
For continued free access to the best investigative journalism, we ask you to consider making a modest support to this noble profession.
