Joseph Bakare
The Lagos Zonal Directorate 2 of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Okotie-Eboh, on Friday, May 16, 2025, arraigned one Solomon Stephen Ufayo, a staff of Ecobank Plc, on a one-count charge bordering on alleged cybercrime to the tune of N2,404,000(Two Million Four Hundred and Four Thousand Naira) before Justice Yellim Bogoro of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos.
The count reads: “That you, Solomon Stephen Ufayo, between the 10th to the 28th day of March, 2025, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, while working for Ecobank Nigeria Limited as a Relief Teller, fraudulently represented yourself as Ogunfodunrin Omowunmi Ajoke, by posting false deposit and withdrawal tellers on her Ecobank account number 2801086259, with intent to gain advantage for yourself and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 22(2)(b)(i) of the Cybercrime (Prohibition and Prevention etc)Act, 2015 and punishable by Section 22(2)(b) of the same Act.
The defendant pleaded guilty to the charge when it was read to him.
Following his guilty plea, prosecution counsel, Abdulhamid L.Tukur, called on David Ngale Gajere, an operative of the EFCC, to review the facts of the case.
Gajere told the court that Ufayo, who is a Relief Teller with the Bank, fraudulently represented himself as one Miss. Omowunmi Ajoke, a customer of the Bank, by posting false deposits into her Ecobank account and moving the total sum of N2, 404,000, which he filled out in withdrawal deposit slips without her consent and paid the same into his own Opay account.
He further informed the court that the defendant provided an extra-judicial statement and also issued a bank draft for N2,404,000 as restitution to the petitioner.
He identified the defendant’s extra- judicial statement, copies of the bank slips, the certified true copy of the bank draft for the restitution to the tune of N2,404,000.
The prosecution counsel then sought to tender, in evidence, the documents, which were admitted and marked as exhibits by the court.
The judge adjourned the case till June 6, 2025 for judgment and ordered the defendant to be remanded in the Ikoyi Correctional Centre.