A staff member of Access Bank Plc, Abdulmajeed Agboola, has narrated to the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos, how the bank’s former employee, Olajide Ogunmoroti, allegedly accessed the bank’s server through a private laptop, resulting in a system glitch on customers account that led to a N5 billion fraud.
Agboola was presented before the court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as its first prosecution witness in the alleged N5,726,994,110.23 fraud case against the bank’s former employee, Olajide Ogunmoroti, Michael Igbomina, David Onyeike, and Moses Iruolaje.
The court proceedings, which took place before Justice O.O. Abike-Fadipe, were disclosed in an EFCC statement on Friday.
The charges partly read:
“That you, Olajide Ogunmoroti, Michael Igbomina, David Onyeike, and Moses Iruolaje, sometime in 2023, with dishonest intent, stole and converted for your own use the sum of N2,253,827,379.23, being property of Access Bank Plc., thereby committing an offence of stealing, contrary to Sections 280 and punishable under Section 280 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.”
“That you, Olajide Ogunmoroti, Michael Igbomina, David Onyeike, and Moses Iruolaje, sometime in 2023, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, with dishonest intent, stole and converted for your own use the sum of N3,473,166,731.00 (Three Billion, Four Hundred and Seventy-Three Million, One Hundred and Sixty-Six Thousand, Seven Hundred and Thirty-One Naira), property of Access Bank Plc., thereby committing an offence of stealing, contrary to Sections 280 and punishable under Section 287 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.”
During the court session, led in evidence by the prosecution counsel Abdulhamid L. Tukur, Agboola informed the court that Ogunmoroti was allegedly the ICT representative of the Abakaliki branch of Access Bank.
“There was a fraudulent overdraft limit maintained on our customers’ accounts, which enabled them to make withdrawals from unfunded accounts.
“We observed suspicious overdraft limits maintained on customers’ accounts, which allowed them to access funds and transfer them to accounts maintained in both Access Bank and other banks.
“We identified customers whose accounts benefited from the suspicious overdraft maintenance with total exposure of over N5 billion,” NAIJAONPOINT added.
The application to tender the evidence was not opposed by the defence counsel.
The document was subsequently admitted into evidence by the court, and the case was adjourned until May 20, 2025, for the continuation of the trial.
While a final verdict on the instant case is yet to be decided by the Court, a related legal development occurred in 2024 when a Federal High Court in Abuja granted an interim freezing order against several accounts in FairMoney Microfinance Bank Ltd, PalmPay Limited, and Opay Digital Services Limited.
A consultant advises that by adopting safer banking habits, strengthening institutional security frameworks, and fostering stronger collaboration among stakeholders, financial institutions can minimize risks while continuing to enjoy the benefits of a secure and efficient digital financial system.