By ADENIKE AYODELE

An Ikeja Special Offences Court on Wednesday sentenced a man, Abubakar Sani, to one year imprisonment for defrauding Lotus Bank of N16.7 million.

Justice Olubusola Okunuga convicted Sani following his guilty plea to an amended one-count charge of being in possession of an item reasonably suspected to have been stolen.

The charge was preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

While delivering the judgment, Okunuga said she considered that the convict was a first-time offender and did not waste the time of the court.

?Having pleaded guilty to the amended information and admitted to the review of facts and exhibits tendered by the prosecutor, the defendant is hereby convicted and sentenced to one year imprisonment,? she said.

The judge gave the convict an option of one million naira fine.

She also ordered the convict to forfeit the money found in his Access and Keystone Bank accounts to the Federal Government of Nigeria.

Earlier, the EFCC counsel, Mr Fanen Anum, reviewed the facts of the case.

He said that in July 2024, the commission received a petition from Lotus Bank alleging fraudulent acts from about 718 customers who took undue advantage of the malfunctioning of the bank?s E-bill pay platform to make fraudulent and illegal transfers.

Anum said the bank lost N1.1 billion to the multiple transfers to other financial institutions, exceeding the balances in their respective accounts.

The prosecutor submitted that the defendant benefited N16.7 million, some of which he transferred to his brother?s Accra Bank account.

?My Lord, the sum of N4,182,406.54 was traced to Access Bank account number 1623542076 belonging to Usman Sani, the defendant?s elder brother.

Also, N1,099,485.18 was traced to the defendant?s Keystone Bank account number 6038086328, which was frozen during the investigation,? Anum said.

The prosecutor further tendered 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 documents were admitted as evidence following no objections from the defence.

According to EFCC, the offence contravene Section 329 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015. (NAN)

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