Appeal Court upholds ex-banker’s seven years jail term

An Appeal Court sitting in Enugu has upheld the conviction and seven years prison sentence of one Onyekachi Nwosu, a former employee of Guaranty Trust Bank, over a N50 million loan fraud.

Nwosu was prosecuted by the Enugu Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on a nine-count charge bordering on forgery and obtaining by false pretence to the tune of N50 million and was convicted and sentenced by Justice R. O. Dugbo Oghoghorie of Federal High Court sitting at Independence Layout, Enugu on January 14, 2021.

The convict, who was an account officer of one Anyaso Chinedu, owner of Floxy Aluminum Odiofele Products Limited, used a forged document titled ‘An Application to Mortgage, Consent to Mortgage and Tripartite Legal Mortgage’ to deceive GTB into believing that one Mrs Adebimpe Foluke pledged her property as collateral for the said loan to Floxy Aluminium Odiofele Products Limited.

Investigations revealed that he benefited N40 million from the fraudulent act by directly withdrawing it from the account of Floxy Aluminium Odiofele Products Limited.

In the course of his trial, prosecution counsel, Assistant Commander of the EFCC, ACE II Mainforce Adaka Ekwu, called four witnesses and tendered 16 exhibits which were admitted in evidence as ‘Exhibit EFCC 1-16’.

At the end of the trial, Justice Oghoghorie held that the EFCC proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and convicted and sentenced Nwosu accordingly.

Dissatisfied with the judgement, the convict approached the Appeal Court, praying it to set aside the judgement of the trial court.

The prosecution counsel prayed the court to uphold the judgment of the High Court and dismiss the appeal on the grounds that “the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.”

The Court of Appeal set aside the convictions from the trial court on counts one to eight but upheld the verdict on Count 9.

In a unanimous judgement of a three-member panel of the Appeal Court, delivered by Justice Zainab Babe Abubakar, the Court of Appeal held that “the evidence of the First Prosecution Witness, PW1, corroborated the confession of the appellant that he collected N40 million from the loan sum of N50 million granted to the third respondent (Floxy Aluminum Odiofele Products Limited).

“The appellant has admitted that he collected N40 million from the loan sum, which has proved the last ingredient of the offence against the appellant.

“Consequently, the conviction of the appellant on this Count 9 of the charge by the trial court was in order, in my humble view.”

Appeal Court upholds ex-banker’s seven years jail term