Witness recounts how bank was allegedly defrauded N13m

An internal Auditor of Sterling Bank Plc, Olaniyi Olaleye has told a Lagos Special Offences Court, Ikeja, how Oluwole Olutimehin stole about N13million from the bank.

Olaleye narrated this before Justice Rahman Oshodi in an ongoing trial of Olutimehin who was charged for stealing by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The prosecution witness was led-in-evidence by the EFCC counsel. Olutimehin is standing trial on a one-count charge bordering on stealing, contrary to Section 280 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015 and punishable under section 287 of the same Act.

The defendant was initially arraigned before Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo of the same division on September 20, 2022. However, the trial could not commence before the judge retired, prompting the re-assignment of the case to Justice Oshodi.

The EFCC alleged that the defendant, Olutimehin on or about the September 15, 2021, in Lagos fraudulently converted to his own use the sum of N13,290,000 property of Sterling Bank Plc.

At the resumed hearing yesterday, the prosecution counsel, Suleiman Suleiman informed the court about the presence of the second prosecution witness.
Olaleye told the court that the bank sent a petition to EFCC to investigate some abnormalities that happened when there Onebank App had issues that lead to loss of several millions of money in the bank.

He stressed that Sterling Bank Plc has an Internet operation called, ‘Onebank App’ which allows users to open an account or withdraw online. According to him, sometimes in September 2021, abnormalities were shown in the App and the user of the App Oluwole Olutimehin and others was able to do transactions by withdrawing over N13 million with several banks, GTB, Wema, and Access.

He further testified that “the petition was written to that effect to the EFCC for investigating. All the statements of accounts were sent to EFCC.” When Exhibits A and B were shown to him, he identified them as the petition sent along with a copy of account details of the defendant account number

In his explanation on how the bank One App operates, he said: “Wallet account of Onebank App allowed customers to operate transactions and as at the time of this transaction, the maximum transaction for customers is N500,000.”

The witness during cross-examination by the defendant’s counsel, Mr O. O. Odusanya, insisted that there was a breach to this bank App. He said that it led to these abnormal transactions. He confirmed that during investigations, as at September 21, 2021, they have recovered N7.3 million from the suspect, and remaining the balance of 6.3million.

He noted that some were recovered from the defendant’s bank account. The witness added that with the investigation so far, there was no bank staff involved and from the records, there are 300 accounts that were involved and the defendant is one of them.

Thereafter, Suleiman informed the Court that the prosecution was closing its case. Consequently, the trial judge adjourned to February 14, 2025, for the defence to open its case.