Anambra State High Court has sentenced a former manager at First City Monument Bank, FCMB, in Onitsha, Nwachukwu Placidus, to a total of 22 years in prison.
According to report, Placidus was found guilty of diverting N112.1 million from a customer’s fixed deposit funds for personal gain.
In a statement by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC on Saturday, Placidus was arraigned before Justice S. N. Odili of the Anambra State High Court on Tuesday, March 27, 2018.
The convict was arraigned by the antigraft agency for 16 count charges. These include forgery, stealing, obtaining by false pretense, and uttering documents.
According to report, Placidus was arrested the operatives after a complaint by the bank. EFCC stated that Placidus, while serving as the branch manager of FCMB in Onitsha, received the funds for a fixed deposit. But he failed to remit them as claimed.
“Upon investigation, the EFCC discovered that Placidus diverted the money for personal use. He rather 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 pretense that you have placed the said money in a fixed deposit account with First City Monument Bank PLC for it, which pretense you knew to be false and you thereby committed an offence”.
Placidus, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges when they were read to him in the court.
The statement further read, “In the course of trial, the EFCC, through its counsel, Mainforce Adaka Ekwu presented four witnesses. She also tendered several relevant documents which were admitted in evidence.
In the judgment, Justice Odili sentenced Placidus to nine years imprisonment on one count. He got four years on another, and nine years each on the remaining counts. He was acquitted on two counts, with the sentences to run concurrently.
source: PUNCH