The trial of three former employees with the First Bank of Nigeria facing attempted fraud charges before a Lagos state special offences court, Ikeja,
The trial of three former employees with the First Bank of Nigeria facing attempted fraud charges before a Lagos state special offences court, Ikeja, continued on Wednesday, June 22.
The defendants, Ozioma Ugorji, Ugwu Emeka, and Obike Chukwuka, were docked by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) for attempting to steal N20 billion from the bank.
It was gathered that the defendants conspired to tap into the bank’s server to grant access to a syndicate.
They were, however, apprehended by the EFCC on March 6, 2021, following an intelligence report.
During cross examination by one of the defence counsel, Uchenna Ozoagbo, a prosecution witness, Adamu Dahiru, told the court that the defendants were arrested after one of them connected a laptop he collected from the syndicate to the bank’s server.
Dahiru said, “They conspired to give access to a hacker to defraud the bank of over N20 billion. The report we gathered was that the money was in the cloud, and they needed to bring it out.
“The second defendant (Emeka) had a meeting with the syndicate at a hotel.
“When the first defendant (Ugorji) was arrested, he made a statement that he was introduced to the syndicate by the third defendant (Chukwuka) and that they had communicated with someone from the bank headquarters.
“The second defendant made a statement that a laptop was given after several promises that he should connect the laptop to the bank’s system.
“When he was on duty, he connected the laptop to the banking system, but during the connection, the I.P. of the laptop was picked up and the system was destroyed,” he added.
Meanwhile, the presiding judge, S.O. Solebo, adjourned the case till October 5, 2022, for continuation of trial.
