The suspects were picked up by operatives of the anti-graft
agency for stealing and putting into circulation defaced and mutilated Nigerian
currency notes to the tune of N8 billion meant for destruction.
All the suspects have already been taken into EFCC custody
preparatory to their arraignment at the Federal High Court, Ibadan, tomorrow.
The trial will run till June 4 in a bid to speed up the prosecution of the
suspects by the court.
A statement signed by the Head of Media of the EFCC, Mr.
WilsonUwujaren, gave the names of the suspects as: Patience Okoro Eye (Abuja),
Afolabi Olufemi (Lagos), Kolawole Babalola (Ibadan), Olaniran Muniru Adeola
(Ibadan), Fatai Yusuf, Adekunle (Head, Security, CBN (Ibadan) and Ilori
Adekunle Sunday (Akure).
The 16 suspects, who colluded with the CBN officials to
commit the fraud, are officials drawn from Zenith Bank, FCMB, Wema Bank, Access
Bank, FirstBank, Skye Bank, Ecobank and Sterling Bank.
The officials helped themselves with the mutilated N8 billion
cash and burned old newspapers in place of the defaced Naira notes, thereby
making a mockery of the CBN rule relating to such money.
But the suspects ran out of luck when one of the bank officials
petitioned the EFCC, alleging on November 3, 2014 that over N6,575,549, 370 was
cornered and discreetly recycled by light-fingered top executives of the CBN at
the Ibadan branch.
The suspects, who were members of the Briquetting Panel,
which handles the destruction of defaced notes from commercial banks, decided
to play a fast one on the nation and smile to their banks but ran into a
trouble yesterday.
In banking parlance, Briquetting is disintegration and
destruction of counted and audited dirty notes. By this practice, depositor
banks usually take mutilated notes to the CBN in exchange for fresh notes
equivalent of the amount deposited.
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