4 Bank Officials Charged With Theft

A prosecution witness, Mrs. Regina Aina, on Monday at the Ebute Meta Magistrates’ Court, Lagos, alleged that her valuables, worth N7.5 million, were stolen by some officials of the First Bank of Nigeria.

Aina testified against four officials of the bank on a case of conspiracy, stealing and failure to prevent the commissioning of felony before Magistrate Helen Omisore.

The accused bank officials are Akindele Olayemi, 43, and Chioma Osakwe, 40, both managers, Pius Aiyejuni, 40 and Samson Olayioye, 39, who are security personnel in the bank.

They were first arraigned on April 19 on a three-count charge and for which they had pleaded not guilty.

The magistrate had also granted them bail in the sum of N200,000 each with two sureties in like sum.

At the resumed trial, Aina told the court that she had gone to the Onipanu branch of the bank for some transactions when the incident happened.

She alleged that one of the suspects (Olayioye) told her to put her handbag in a security box, marked “16”, at the bank’s entrance.

She said that she was shocked to discover later that her handbag had disappeared from the box.

“When I came out after the transactions, I unlocked the box and find a male’s shuttle bag in the box. I shouted and alerted other customers at the entrance.

“The customers assisted me to call my second handset which was in the bag, it rang and a male voice picked it and said it was a wrong number,” she said.

Aina said that at this stage, one of the managers, (Osakwe) approached her and almost immediately, another man came to open the box with the key marked number “18”.

She said that her husband later joined her at the bank and they both went to the Onipanu Police Station to report the incident.

Aina further disclosed that two policemen went back with her to the bank to confirm that key number “18” could also open box “16”.

The witness also disclosed that after the incident, a man who identified himself as a sign writer, came to paste a sign on the boxes written “Items kept at owners risk” .

She said that the man was arrested by the policemen.

“The sign writer begged and told the police that the bank called him to paste the sign. I later went back to the Onipanu Police Station with the two policemen.