LAGOS BANKER JAILED ONE-YEAR FOR N2.4M CYBERCRIME

A bank staff, identified as SOLOMON STEPHEN UFAYO, has been convicted and sentenced to one-year imprisonment for involvement in cybercrime.

The Lagos Zonal Directorate 2 of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, dragged UFAYO before Justice YELLIM BOGORO of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos.

The EFCC slammed one-count of cybercrime to the tune of Two Million Four Hundred and Four Thousand Naira against UFAYO, to which he pleaded guilty.

While working as a Relief Teller with the bank, he is alleged to have fraudulently represented himself as one Miss Omowunmi Ajoke, a customer of the Bank, by posting false deposits into her Ecobank account and moving the total sum of N2,404,000, which he filled out in withdrawal deposit slips without her consent and paid the same into his own Opay account.

The charge reads: “That you, Solomon Stephen Ufayo, between the 10th to the 28th day of March, 2025, in Lagos within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, while working for Ecobank Nigeria Limited as a Relief Teller, fraudulently represented yourself as Ogunfodunrin Omowunmi Ajoke, by posting false Deposit and Withdrawal Tellers on her Ecobank account number 2801086259 with intent to gain advantage for yourself and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 22(2)(b)(i) of the CYBERCRIME (PROHIBITION, PREVENTION etc)Act, 2015 and punishable by Section 22(2)(b) of the same Act.”

Following his “guilty” plea, the prosecution counsel, ABDULHAMID L. TUKUR, called on DAVID NGALE GAJERE, an operative of the EFCC, to review the facts of the case.

Justice BOGORO consequently convicted and sentenced him to one year imprisonment, with an option of fine in the sum of Five Hundred Thousand Naira, in addition to compulsory two weeks of community service.