Ex-banker, wife, mother in-law get 60-year jail term for theft in Ekiti

The Ekiti state high court has sentenced Ebenezer Alonge, an ex-banker, along with Olamide, his wife, and Moradeke Isakunle, his mother in-law, to 60 years imprisonment for theft of customer’s deposit.

Wilson Uwujarem, Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) spokesman, disclosed this in a statement he issued on Friday.

Uwajarem said, Abdulrasheed Suleiman, counsel to the EFCC in Ekiti, had told the court that a new generation bank in the state had on February 2018 petitioned the agency that Alonge, one of their cashiers, was involved in a criminal act.

Suleiman further said investigations revealed that Alonge had transferred over N21 million belonging to one of their customers into his wife’s bank account as well as his mother in-law’s bank account.

The prosecutor stated that the offence contravened section 390 (9) of the criminal code Act cap 16 laws of Ekiti state 2012.

Delivering judgement on Friday, Adekanye Ogunmoye, presiding judge, pronounced Alonge, Olamide and Moradeke guilty of the 12-count charge instituted against them because none of them could prove their innocence in the suit.

Ogunmoye consequently convicted and sentenced each of the convicts to five years in jail for each of the 12 offences.

However, the judge said the sentencing would run concurrently which means they will serve each sentence all at once and will each spend only five years in prison. 

Ogunmoye also forfeited the house found in possession of the convicts which would be restituted to the plaintiff.