Appeal Court In Enugu Upholds Former GTBank Employee’s 7-Year Prison Sentence

The Enugu Division of the Court of Appeal has backed the conviction and 7-year prison sentence of Onyekachi Nwosu, a former employee of GTBank, for his commission of over N50M loan fraud.

Recall that EFCC recently prosecuted Onyekachi on a 9-count charge, including forgery and obtaining by false pretence to the tune of fifty million naira. He was convicted and sentenced by Justice R. O. Dugbo Oghoghorie of Federal High Court, sitting in Independence Layout, Enugu on January 14, 2021.

The culprit, who was the account officer of Anyaso Chinedu, chairman of Floxy Aluminium Odiofele Products Limited, used a fake document titled “An Application to Mortgage, Consent to Mortgage and Tripartite Legal Mortgage,” to deceive Guaranty Trust Bank into believing that a certain Mrs. Adebimpe Foluke presented her property as collateral for the said loan to Floxy Aluminium Odiofele Products Limited.

Investigations later revealed that Onyekachi directly withdrew N40M from the account of Floxy Aluminium Odiofele Products Limited to finalise his fraudulent act.

During the trial, prosecution counsel, Assistant Commander of the EFCC, ACE II Mainforce Adaka Ekwu, presented 4 witnesses and tendered 16 exhibits to nail the fraudster, and Justice Oghoghorie eventually concluded that the commission proved beyond reasonable doubt that Onyekachi committed a serious crime he had to be punished for.

Unhappy with the punishment he got, the convict immediately approached the Appeal Court, urging it to overturn the judgment of the trial court, while Adaku argued that his appeal should be thrown out since the prosecution had already proved his guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

The Court of Appeal eventually set aside the convictions from the trial court on counts 1 – 8, but upheld the ones on Count 9.

“That you, Onyekachi Nwosu, sometime in September, 2010 in Enugu within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court of Nigeria, while being an officer of Guaranty Trust Bank and being connected with the grant of loan, knowingly processed and facilitated the grant loan of Fifty Million Naira (N50, 000,000.00) to Floxy Aluminum Odiofele Products Limited, received the sum of Forty Million Naira (N40,000,000.00) as personal gratification, out of the said loan after it was granted, thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 15 (1) (a) (iii) and punishable under Section 16 (1) (a) of the Failed Banks (Recovery of Debts) and Financial Malpractices in Banks Act Cap. F2 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria,” Count 9 of the charge read.

According to a three-member panel of the Appeal Court, whose unanimous judgement was delivered by Justice Zainab Babe Abubakar, the evidence presented clearly corroborated the confession of Onyekachi that he collected N40M from the loan sum of N50M granted to the third respondent (Floxy Aluminum Odiofele Products Limited), therefore, his conviction by the trial court is in order.

“The evidence of the First Prosecution Witness, PW1 corroborated the confession of the appellant that he collected N40million from the loan sum of N50million granted to the third respondent (Floxy Aluminum Odiofele Products Limited).

The appellant has admitted that he collected N40million from the loan sum, which has proved the last ingredient of the offence against the appellant. Consequently, the conviction of the appellant on this Count 9 of the charge by the trial court was in order, in my humble view,” the court said.