EFCC Arraigns Two Bankers, Others for Alleged N20m Theft

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission today arraigned two bankers, Freeman Austin Jacob and Umar Abdullahi and two others – Ahmed Bashir and Abdulhakim Musa (aka Gandu)  before Justice Simon Akpah Amobeda of the Federal High Court, Kano on a three-count charge of conspiracy and stealing.

The defendants allegedly conspired among themselves to produce an ATM card in the name of one Alhaji Sani Muntari and used same to steal the sum of (N20,000,000) Twenty Million Naira Only from his bank.

The defendants perpetrated the fraud by using the SIM card of the account holder which was stolen by Bashir, the third defendant, to produce an ATM card with the help of the first and second defendants.

Investigation traced some of the proceeds of the theft to the bank account of the fourth defendant, Abdulkarim Musa, a friend to the third defendant, Ahmed Bashir.

One of the charges reads, “That You, Freeman Austin Jacob, Umar Abdullahi, sometime in February 2020, at Kano within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, connived with Ahmed Bashir and Abdulhakim Musa (aka Gandu) to prime and issue ATM card from UBA account no 2062903187 belonging to one Alhaji Sani Mutari without the knowledge or consent of the said customer and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 14 (7) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc,) Act, 2015.

All the defendants pleaded not guilty after listening to the charge.

After listening to the submissions of the parties, Justice Amobeda agreed with the prosecution that bail applications should be made formally as the court is a court of record.

He subsequently remanded the defendant and adjourned the matter till June 26, 2023 for hearing of bail applications and commencement of trial.

Credit: EFCC