The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Enugu Zonal Directorate has secured the conviction and sentence of two former bankers, identified as Sani Endurance Aferokhe and Hillary Odo, before Justice A. O. Onovo of the Enugu State High Court for criminal diversion of N10, 300, 000. 00 belonging to customers of the bank.
The convicts were arraigned on January 18, 2016, on a 15-count charge bordering on conspiracy, forgery, and stealing to the said sum.
The commission disclosed this in a statement shared on its Facebook page on Wednesday.
The count charge read, “Sani Endurance Aferokhe and Hillary Odo on or about the 21st day of November, 2012 at Nsukka within the jurisdiction of the Honourable Court, while as servants of Intercontinental Bank Plc (now Access Bank Plc), stole the sum of Four Million, Four Hundred and Forty-four Thousand Naira (N4, 440, 000. 00) property of Intercontinental Bank Plc (now Access Bank Plc) from a customer account with account name Udekwu F. A. O, with number 00237808311, domiciled in Intercontinental Bank Plc (now Access Bank Plc), and thereby committed an offence.
According to the EFCC, the offences are contrary to Section 459 (a) of the Criminal Code Law Cap 30 of Enugu State of Nigeria, 2004.
It was gathered that the suspects pleaded not guilty to the charges, thereby setting the stage for their trial.
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During the cause of trial, the EFCC, through its counsel, Assistant Commander na of the EFCC, ACE II Michael Ikechukwu Ani presented five witnesses and tendered several documents.
Delivering judgment on Friday, December 22, 2025, the court dismissed counts six and nine, convicted the second defendant on counts four and seven, and convicted the first defendant on counts one, two, three, five, eight, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen.
While the second defendant was sentenced to five years imprisonment on counts four and seven with an option of fine of N100, 000, 00 on each count, the first defendant was sentenced to five years imprisonment on each of the said counts, except count fifteen which he was sentenced to three years imprisonment, with an option of N100, 000, 00 fine on each count.
First Daily correspondent gathered that the suspects, former staff of Access Bank, bagged their imprisonment when they conspired amongst themselves to reactivate three accounts belonging to customers of the bank who happened to be pensioners without their consent and diverted the said sum for their personal benefits.