The Lagos Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Monday, December 16, 2024, re-arraigned a convicted former Managing Director of the defunct Bank PHB Plc, Francis Atuche, on a nine-count charge of alleged conspiracy to commit felony and forgery before the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos.
The EFCC disclosed this in a statement on Monday via its X page, adding that Atuche, Nnosiri Joachim, and Uguru Onyike were arraigned before Justice O. O. Abike-Fadipe.
The defendants were initially arraigned over alleged forgery before Justice Habeeb Abiru.
However, the judge has reportedly been elevated to the Court of Appeal, resulting in the EFCC case starting afresh before Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo.
According to the EFCC, Justice Onigbanjo was also transferred to another division of the Lagos High Court.
What transpired in court
- The EFCC alleges that Atuche contacted Nnosiri, an Office Assistant with Keystone Bank’s Central Sharing Services Centre in Lagos, to deliver some allegedly forged documents to the bank’s corporate headquarters in Lagos for onward presentation in court as exhibits in an ongoing case between him and the Commission before Justice Lateefat Okunnu.
- At the resumed proceedings, the registrar of the court read the charges to the defendants:
“That you, Mr. Francis Atuche, Nnosiri Joachim (a.k.a Ifeanyi), and Uguru Onyike, on or about the 4th day of March 2013, in Lagos, within the Ikeja Judicial Division, with intent to defraud, conspired to commit felony, to wit: forgery of a document titled ‘BOARD RESOLUTION’ of Future View Securities Limited, dated 17th December 2007.”
“Nnosiri Joachim (a.k.a Ifeanyi), on or about the 4th day of March 2013, in Lagos, within the Ikeja Judicial Division, with intent to defraud, knowingly and fraudulently used a false document titled ‘Board Resolution of Trajek Nigeria Limited,’ dated 15th December 2007, which you purported to have been duly signed by one Elizabeth Ebi (a Director of Trajek Nigeria Limited), to Keystone Bank Limited as genuine,” the charges partly read.
- The defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges, paving the way for the fresh commencement of the trial.
- According to the EFCC statement, counsel to the first defendant, Anthony Ejere, asked the court “to allow his client, who has been convicted in another matter, to continue to enjoy the earlier bail granted him by the court.”
- Counsel to the second and third defendants, Clement Onwuenwunor, SAN, also prayed in the same line, adding that bail had been granted to his clients by Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo.
- In a short ruling, Justice Fadipe upheld the bail terms granted to the defendants by Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo.
The judge subsequently adjourned the case until May 6, 7, 8, 13, 20, and 27, 2025, for the commencement of trial.
What you should know
Recall that the Supreme Court of Nigeria on June 28, 2024, affirmed the conviction of Francis Atuche, former Managing Director of the defunct Bank PHB, stemming from a N25.7 billion fraud case.
The judgment was delivered by Justice Moore Adumein.
Nairametrics previously reported that the Court of Appeal in Lagos and a High Court had in 2022 convicted the ex-bank MD in a suit instituted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
