By Onyewuchi Ojinnaka
A banker with the First City Monument Bank, Mr Felix David Diete, will spend the next four years in prison for defrauding a customer of N 2 million.
Justice Jane Inyang of the Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, handed down the jail sentence to Felix David Diete after he was found guilty of committing the offence.
He was convicted and sentenced accordingly by the judge after four years of diligent prosecution by the Port Harcourt zonal office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The convict was arraigned in January, 2017 on three-counts charge bordering on stealing, contrary to Section 383 and punishable under Section 390 (6)(b)(8) and (9) of Criminal Code CAP C-38 of the revised edition (Laws of the Federation of Nigeria) 2007; Section 1(1)(d) of the Failed Bank(Recovery of Debts) and Financial Malpractices in Bank Act CAP B3 of the revised edition (Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria) 2007.
One of the three counts reads: “That you Felix Diete sometime in September 2016 at Port Harcourt within the judicial division of this Honourable Court being an employee of First City Monument Bank, did fraudulently steal the sum of Two Million Naira (N2,000,000.00) only property of Ukenna Ngozi Godswill, a customer of First City Monument Bank and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 383 and punishable under 390 (6)(b)(8) and 9 of Criminal Code CAP C-38 of the revised edition (Laws of the Federation of Nigeria) 2007; read along with Section 1(1)(d) of the Failed Bank (Recovery of Debts) and Financial Malpractices in Bank Act CAP B3 of the revised edition (Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria) 2007.
The defendant pleaded not guilty to the charges.
His plea prompted the prosecuting counsel, Adebayo Soares to prepare a ground for trial which lasted four years, resulting in his conviction.
In his judgment on Monday, Justice Inyang held that the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt on count one and convicted and sentenced Diete to four years imprisonment on the count.
The judge, however, discharged him on counts 2 and 3 on the grounds that he denied ever seeing the other two customers who came and testified as PW 2 and PW 3.
The convicts journey to the Correctional Centre started sometime on September, 2, 2016, when three customers of First City Monument Bank (F.C.M.B.) lodge complain that they gave the convict the sum of N6 million to deposit into their accounts but only deposited N 4 million and made away with N 2 million.