Lagos: Banker steals N9m, begs judge to “have mercy because I have no father”
A 26-year-old banker, David Anibolu has been sentenced to four years imprisonment for stealing N9million from a customer’s bank account.
Anibolu worked as a cashier at First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) Plc, Alaba 2 branch in Ojo, where he committed the crime on March 22.
He fraudulently debited the said sum from a customer’s bank account after changing the customer’s identity and mandate card.
He was said to have transferred the money into various accounts.
It only took a forensic auditor attached to the bank, Solomon Akhanolu to blow Anibolu’s cover after the fraud was linked to the banker through the password he used to change the customer’s identity and mandate card.
Anibolu confessed that his accomplices, who are still at large, promised him N4m as his share of the fraud. He claimed that they however disappeared without giving him anything from the loot.
Chief Magistrate A.O. Awogboro convicted Anibolu of stealing at an Igbosere Magistrates’ Court, Lagos on Wednesday.
Anibolu’s counsel, Philips Onyama pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy because he’s “a first time offender; he has no father, only a sick mother who relies on him to survive. He has been in custody since March 24, 2014 and has suffered emotional and physical torture. He is also now more sober and refined.”
A four-year sentence was subsequently handed down on him.
