By OLA AGBAJE Thursday, February 16, 2012 A former staffer of the United Bank for Africa (UBA) was yesterday jailed 10 years by a Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja over his part in a N9.26million fraud. Omemogor Romeo, who had worked in the information technology department of the bank’s systems control unit, was found guilty by the court on the 30 –count charge of conspiracy, falsification of account and obtaining by false pretence preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The trial judge, Justice Olubunmi Oyewole, held that the prosecution had been able to sufficiently prove their case against the convict. According to the court, the testimonies of the prosecution witnesses which Romeo partly admitted as true were that the defendant conspired with his friend (Francis Ineh who had already been convicted in the same case) to commit the offences. In addition, the court held that the opinion that the testimony given by first defence witness assisted the prosecution to totally damage any credibility of the defendant’s assertion of innocence while the defendant was inconsistent and unstable to the extent that he was merely doing everything to save his skin. “It is unfortunate that the defendant chose to apply his special skills and talents in a criminal manner thereby destroying and terminating a promising career. I sentence him to five years each without option of fine for each of counts 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27 and 29. “I sentence you to 10 years on each of count 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28 and 30. All sentences will run concurrently and will commence from February 2, 2007 when he was first remanded. He should also pay all sums that accrued to him from the fraud to the United Bank of Africa,” the court stated. The convict had first been arraigned on February 19, 2007 as the second defendant on a 10-count charge to which he pleaded not guilty but in the course of the trial, his co-defendant changed his plea to guilty and was accordingly convicted and sentenced while the initial charge was amended. During the trial, the prosecution called five witnesses, four of whom were staff of the bank and an investigator at EFCC. They include Nneka Nwankwo in the credit monitoring division of the bank; Ngozi Ikemba, a customer service manager whose profile was used to commit the crime; Usman Isiaka, an auditor with the bank and Omolaja Sorunke, group Head of Information Technology Audit of the bank and expert in detecting electronic fraud. The defendant made a no case submission, which was rejected by the court leading to the trial. The defence called one witness while the defendant himself also testified from the witness box. The witness was Mabel Irone-Nduka, the Head of Information Technology Care team, who testified that at the time of the case, Romeo was the only member of her team that was skilled in setting up standard instructions and had the sole responsibility for standing instructions related issues. via Daily Sun HI
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Posted: at 16-02-2012 09:04 AM (12 years ago) | Gistmaniac
princesssally2 at 16-02-2012 09:42 AM (12 years ago) (f)
na wa o!
Posted: at 16-02-2012 09:42 AM (12 years ago) | Upcoming