EFCC arraigns former bank employee over alleged N21m fraud

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arraigned one Alhaji Aliyu Sulaiman, a former employee of Oceanic Bank now Ecobank, over alleged illegal withdrawal of over N21 million.

It was said that the amount was collected from the indigenes of Albasu Local Government Area of Kano State meant to open a micro-finance bank in Albasu town.

Alhaji Suleiman, who was arraigned on Wednesday, in Kano, is being charged for criminal breach of trust, forgery and use of genuine documents to illegally withdraw money from the account entrusted to him.

Earlier, the prosecutor, Aisha Habib, urged the court to grant leave for the prepared 105 charges to be read to the accused under Section 185 (B) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC).

Consequently, the prayer was granted by the court and the charges were read to the accused but he pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

The prosecution said the accused, who was a member of the steering committee of Albasu Micro-finance Bank, was alleged to have forged genuine document to withdraw the said amount from the account at Oceanic Bank now Ecobank.

She told the court that the accused used various cheques to commit the offence between 2010 and 2012.

While adjourning the case till October 16, 2014 for hearing, the presiding judge, Justice Dije Aboki, ordered the accused to be remanded in prison custody to enable the EFCC to present its witnesses.