The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arraigned three suspected fraudsters and their company before Justice Z. B. Abubakar of the Federal High Court sitting in Kaduna on two counts of conspiracy and fraud.
Two Access Bank staff, Benjamin Soile and Okoro Junior were said to have connived with Abubakar Mustapha and Abueleven Limited to defraud one Sa ’ adatu Dasuki of £ 100 , 000.
Dasuki alleged that in September 2018 , Mustapha introduced the bankers to her as bureaux de change operators , and convinced her to transfer the money from her Access Bank account to his own account in the same bank with an understanding that he would credit her account with the naira equivalent.
However , the £ 100 , 000 was transferred to a Barclays Bank account of one Celestine Tagbo on the instruction of one Alhassan Habib , both resident in London , without the knowledge or consent of Dasuki.
Sensing that she had been duped , Dasuki reportedly demanded a refund of the money , but Okoro instead credited her account with N 11 , 562 , 500 on September 12 and 13 , 2018 , but reversed the said transaction.
The acting EFCC spokesman , Tony Orilade , in a statement in Abuja on Friday, said the accused pleaded ‘ not guilty ’ to the charges and the prosecuting counsel, J . Saidi , urged the court to fix a date for commencement of trial.
Counsel to the first defendant , P. I . Kalu , informed the court of his client ’ s bail application dated January 23 , 2018.
In his ruling, Justice Abubakar granted bail to the defendants in the sum of N500 , 000 each and two sureties in like sum who must own landed properties within the jurisdiction of the court .
One of the sureties must be a civil servant not below Grade Level 9.
The case was thereafter adjourned to February 14 for hearing, and the defendants remanded in prison pending the perfection of the bail conditions.
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