The Enugu Division of the Court of Appeal has upheld the seven-year imprisonment of a convicted former employee of Guaranty Trust Bank, Onyekachi Nwosu, for his involvement in a loan fraud amounting to over N50 million.
Justice Zainab Abubakar of the Court of Appeal delivered the verdict, according to a statement by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Thursday.
Nwosu was prosecuted by the EFCC on a nine-count charge, relating to forgery and obtaining money by false pretence to the tune of N50 million.
EFCC Investigation and Trial Court Judgment
According to the EFCC, the suspect, who was an account officer for one Anyaso Chinedu, owner of Floxy Aluminum Odiofele Products Limited, used a forged document titled “An Application to Mortgage, Consent to Mortgage and Tripartite Legal Mortgage” to deceive GTB into believing that Mrs. Adebimpe Foluke had pledged her property as collateral for the loan granted to Floxy Aluminum Odiofele Products Limited.
Investigations further revealed that he benefited N40 million from the fraudulent act by directly withdrawing it from the account of Floxy Aluminum Odiofele Products Limited.
Count nine of the charge reads:
“That you, Onyekachi Nwosu, sometime in September 2010 in Enugu within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court of Nigeria, while being an officer of Guaranty Trust Bank and connected with the grant of a loan, knowingly processed and facilitated the grant of a loan of Fifty Million Naira (N50,000,000.00) to Floxy Aluminum Odiofele Products Limited, received the sum of Forty Million Naira (N40,000,000.00) as personal gratification out of the said loan after it was granted, thereby committing an offence contrary to Section 15(1)(a)(iii) and punishable under Section 16(1)(a) of the Failed Banks (Recovery of Debts) and Financial Malpractices in Banks Act Cap. F2 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria.”
During the trial, the EFCC called four witnesses and tendered 16 exhibits to support its allegations.
At the end of the trial, Justice R. O. Dugbo Oghoghorie held that the EFCC had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and convicted and sentenced Nwosu accordingly in 2021.
Dissatisfied with the judgment, Nwosu appealed to the Court of Appeal, praying it to set aside the trial court’s judgment.
The EFCC, on its part, urged the court to uphold the High Court’s judgment and dismiss the appeal on the grounds that “the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.”
Appeal Court Judgment
- In a unanimous judgment by a three-member panel of the Appeal Court, delivered by Justice Zainab Abubakar, the court held that the EFCC’s evidence corroborated the appellant’s confession that he collected N40 million from the loan sum of N50 million granted to Floxy Aluminum Odiofele Products Limited.
“The appellant has admitted that he collected N40 million from the loan sum, which has proved the last ingredient of the offence against the appellant,” the Appeal Court stated.
- Consequently, the judge held that the “conviction of the appellant on Count 9 of the charge by the trial court was in order, in my humble view.”
- The Court of Appeal set aside the convictions on counts one to eight but upheld the conviction on Count 9.
