A former banker, Christopher Jackson Edeh, has been jailed 39 years for stealing N2.7 billion belonging to NNPC Trading Limited, Kano State Government Power Intervention Fund and Lagos State Government Blue Line.
Other victims are Stallion Vision Ltd, State Contributory Pension Account and Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University.
Justice O.O. Abike-Fadipe of the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos, handed down the sentence on Tuesday, after finding him guilty of nine counts of fraudulent false accounting and unauthorised access to a computer system to alter their account details.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), through its Lagos Zonal Directorate 1, prosecuted the case.
Edeh was arraigned on February 28, 2024, on seven counts of fraudulent false accounting and two counts of unauthorised access to a computer system.
One of the charges concerned alteration of customer account details, while another involved unauthorised access to a bank’s Entrust portal to facilitate the alleged theft of N2,737,784,800.
During trial, prosecuting counsel, Z.B. Atiku, called three witnesses and tendered several documentary exhibits. The defence called one witness.
In her judgment, Justice Abike-Fadipe held that the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and convicted Edeh on all nine counts.
She sentenced him to five years imprisonment without an option of fine on each of counts one to seven, and two years each on counts eight and nine.
