N2.4m Cybercrime Fraud: Ecobank Staff Arrested in Lagos

An employee of Ecobank Plc, Solomon Stephen Ufayo, has admitted committing a Cybercrime fraud of N2,404 million.

Solomon who is Ecobank’s Relief Teller officer, admitted committing the offence, following his guilty plea to a count-charge charge preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), last Friday.

The EFCC had arraigned him before Justice Yellim Bogoro of the Lagos division of the Federal High Court Lagos, on a one-count charge bordering on alleged cybercrime offence.

Following his guilty plea, the EFCC prosecutor, Abdulhamid L. Tukur, called on David Ngale Gajere, an operative of the EFCC, to review the facts of the case.

The EFCC witness, Gajere told the court that Ufayo, who is a Relief Teller with the bank, 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.

He further told the court that the defendant provided an extra-judicial statement and also issued a bank draft for N2,404,000 as restitution to the petitioner.

The witness identified the defendant’s extrajudicial statement, copies of the bank slips, and the certified true copy of the bank draft for the restitution to the tune of N2, 404,000 million, which were tendered in evidence by the prosecutor. The tendered documents were equally admitted and marked as exhibits by the court.

Meanwhile, based the banker’s guilty plea, evidence adduced by the prosecution witness and documentary exhibits tendered and admitted, Justice Bogoro adjourned the case till 6 June 2025 for judgment, while ordered the defendant to be remanded in the Ikoyi Correctional Centre.

Charge against the banker 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 and Prevention etc) Act, 2015 and punishable by Section 22(2)(b) of the same Act.”