Friday, May 9, 2025 - An Appeal Court sitting in Enugu has upheld the conviction and seven years prison sentence of one Onyekachi Nwosu, a former employee of Guaranty Trust Bank, over a N50 million loan fraud.
Nwosu was prosecuted by the Enugu Zonal Directorate of the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on a nine-count charge
bordering on forgery and obtaining by false pretence to the tune of N50 million
and was convicted and sentenced by Justice R. O. Dugbo Oghoghorie of Federal
High Court sitting at Independence Layout, Enugu on January 14, 2021.
The convict, who was an account officer of 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 one Mrs Adebimpe Foluke
pledged her property as collateral for the said loan to Floxy Aluminium
Odiofele Products Limited.
Investigations revealed that he benefited N40 million from
the fraudulent act by directly withdrawing it from the account of Floxy
Aluminium Odiofele Products Limited.
In the course of his trial, prosecution counsel, Assistant
Commander of the EFCC, ACE II Mainforce Adaka Ekwu, called four witnesses and
tendered 16 exhibits which were admitted in evidence as ‘Exhibit EFCC 1-16’.
At the end of the trial, Justice Oghoghorie held that the
EFCC proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and convicted and sentenced Nwosu
accordingly.
Dissatisfied with the judgement, the convict approached the
Appeal Court, praying it to set aside the judgement of the trial court.
The prosecution counsel prayed the court to uphold the
judgment of the High Court and dismiss the appeal on the grounds that “the
prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.”
The Court of Appeal set aside the convictions from the trial
court on counts one to eight but upheld the verdict on Count 9.
In a unanimous judgement of a three-member panel of the
Appeal Court, delivered by Justice Zainab Babe Abubakar, the Court of Appeal
held that “the evidence of the First Prosecution Witness, PW1, corroborated the
confession of the appellant that he collected N40 million from the loan sum of
N50 million granted to the third respondent (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.
“Consequently, the conviction of the appellant on this Count
9 of the charge by the trial court was in order, in my humble view.”
0 Comments