Two senior officers with Union Bank of Nigeria are currently cooling their heels behind the bars of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as they were arrested for allegedly siphoning the sum of N661 million.
In a statement signed by the commission’s spokesman, Wilson Uwurajen on Tuesday, August 12, 2014 said that both men: Samuel Obende and Rabiu Alhasan Dawaki , a branch manager and head of operation embezzled the monies in the course of discharging their duties.
In the letter, the EFCC accused both managers of abusing their offices to effect the fraud.
The Vanguard reports:
The two men who were saddled with the responsibility of evacuating and supplying cash to 17 branches of the bank in Kano, Katsina, Kaduna and Jigawa States, conspired and made away with the said amount without the knowledge of their employers.
The commission further revealed that in a bid to cover their tracks, the two managers fabricated accounting entries, which deceitfully showed that all the monies were delivered to the respective branches.
The commission said the two men were being interrogated with a view to prosecuting them in court.
It will be recalled that Nigeria lost at least N4.52 billion to a reported 3,380 fraud cases involving N17.97 billion in 2012, according to the annual report of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC).
The report said, “The expected/contingent loss increased by N455 million or10.9 per cent as against N4.072 billion reported in 2011.”
“Notwithstanding the 43.7 per cent increase in the number of reported fraud cases from 2,352 in 2011 to 3,380 in 2012, the amount involved decreased by 36.4 per cent from N28.40 billion in 2011 to N18.04 billion in 2012,” the report said.
In 2013, Nigerian banks lost N40bn to cybercrimes, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The Chief Information Security Officer, CBN, Mr. Taiwo Longe, made this disclosure at the first National Cyber Security Forum in Lagos. The forum was organised by the Office of the National Security Adviser.
