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-Qa2Imx2h4L.jpg "A former manager at First City Monument Bank in Onitsha, Nwachukwu Placidus")
A former manager at First City Monument Bank in Onitsha, Nwachukwu Placidus, has been handed a total of 121 years in prison for fraudulent activities in the financial sector.
The court found him guilty of diverting N112.1m from a customer’s fixed deposit funds for personal gain.
A statement by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC) on Saturday indicated that Placidus was arraigned before Justice S. N. Odili of the Anambra State High Court on Tuesday, March 27, 2018.
He faced 16 charges, including forgery, stealing, obtaining by false pretence, and uttering.
The case stemmed from a complaint by the bank, alleging that Placidus, while serving as the branch manager of FCMB in Onitsha, received the funds for a fixed deposit but failed to remit them as claimed.
Upon thorough investigation, the EFCC discovered that Placidus diverted the money for personal use and provided a fake fixed deposit certificate to the bank. As a result, he has been sentenced and will serve time in a correctional centre.
“One of the counts read, “Nwachukwu Placidus between February 2009 and November 2014 in Onitsha, Anambra State within the jurisdiction of the Anambra State High Court of Nigeria with intent to defraud obtained the sum of (N112,100,000) One hundred and twelve million, one hundred thousand naira only, from Idemili Microfinance Bank under the false pretence that you have placed the said money in a fixed deposit account with First City Monument Bank PLC for it, which pretence you knew to be false and you thereby committed an offence”.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges when they were read to him.
The statement further read, “In the course of trial, the EFCC, through its counsel, Mainforce Adaka Ekwu presented four witnesses and tendered several relevant documents which were admitted in evidence.
In the judgment, Justice Odili sentenced Placidus to nine years imprisonment on one count, four years on another, and nine years each on the remaining counts. He was acquitted on two counts, with the sentences to run concurrently.
