A banker with one of the new generation banks, Cletus Emuh, was on Wednesday, June 15, 2016, brought before Justice F.N. Azinge of the Delta High Court in Asaba by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Cletus, 36, was arraigned on a 34-count charge bordering on obtaining credit by false pretence, forgery, and uttering, to the tune of N148 million.
The suspect, who worked in the Sapele branch of his bank, was said to have fraudulently created a series of loans for one Adu Ufoma George who does not exist.
The documents he used were scanned from previous original documents of the customer who have benefited from the loan and the passport photograph was scanned onto an existing driver licence.
Cletus created the loan for his own use. He stated that he took the loan in order to offset a loan he got from a friend. This showed that he had defrauded the bank through loan scam.
Statement of offence count-1 “Obtaining Credit by False Pretence contrary to Section 419A (1) of the Criminal Code, Cap. 21, Vol.1 Laws of Delta State of Nigeria, 2006.”
The suspect pleaded not guilty to the charges when they were read to him.
In view of his plea, the prosecution counsel, Banjo James, asked the court for a trial date and pleaded that the accused be remanded in prison custody.
He opposed the oral application made by defence counsel, while urging the court not to grant bail, but rather to grant accelerated hearing.
The defense counsel Lawrence Egodike, however made an oral application. He prayed the court to grant the accused person bail on liberal terms.
Justice Azinge adjourned the matter to June 23, 2016 for hearing and ordered that the accused person be remanded in prison custody.
