The Uyo Division of the Akwa Ibom State High Court has sentenced a former bank relationship manager, Chukwudi Henry Onwuka, to 40 years’ imprisonment for defrauding his friend of N67.51 million under the pretext of facilitating a foreign exchange transaction.
Onwuka’s co-defendant, Eze Joshua Chinedu, was also sentenced to 20 years in prison for his role in the fraud.
Delivering judgment, Justice Archibong Archibong found the 47-year-old former banker guilty on a four-count charge, bordering on obtaining by false pretence, stealing, aiding and abetting.
The judge ruled that the, offences go contrary to the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act, 2006, and the Criminal Code Laws of Akwa Ibom State.
Onwuka, a father of three from Mbaitoli Local Government Area of Imo State, was convicted alongside Chinedu, the Director and Chief Executive Officer of Jec-Mega World Investment Limited, whose company bank account was used to receive the stolen funds.
Court records revealed that the victim, Toochi Obianom, an Onitsha-based financial consultant and currency dealer, reported the case to the police at the Uyo Area Command on March 23, 2017.
Obianom told the court that on March 17, 2017, Onwuka contacted him, claiming that one of his bank customers, Jec-Mega World Investment Limited, had $157,000 available for sale.
Onwuka allegedly instructed him to transfer the naira equivalent of N67.51 million to the company’s First Bank account, assuring him that the dollars would be delivered within 30 minutes.
Trusting Onwuka, whom he described as a longtime friend, Obianom transferred N39,450,000 on March 17, 2017, and another N28,060,000 on March 21, 2017, into First Bank account number 1000455243 operated by Chinedu’s company, bringing the total sum to N67,510,000.
The promised $157,000 was never delivered, and all attempts to recover the money proved unsuccessful.
In his defence, Chinedu admitted allowing his account to be used but claimed he was unaware of Onwuka’s criminal intentions, stating that the banker, who was his account officer, had told him the funds were meant for contract settlement.
“I did not know he had other sinister criminal intentions,” Chinedu told the court.
Both defendants pleaded not guilty to the six-count charge, leading to a full trial.
The prosecution called four witnesses, including the victim, and tendered 10 documentary exhibits.
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The defendants testified in their own defence but did not call any additional witnesses.
In his ruling, Justice Archibong held that the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.
He convicted Chinedu on counts four and five and sentenced him to 20 years’ imprisonment—10 years on each count, to run concurrently.
“For the second defendant, I hereby find you guilty of counts four and five and accordingly convict you. The punishment for the offence is a term of not less than 10 years’ imprisonment without option of fine,” the judge ruled.
Onwuka was convicted on counts one, two, three and four and sentenced to a total of 40 years’ imprisonment, with 10 years on each count, also to run concurrently.
The court further ordered Onwuka to refund the sum of N67,510,000 to the victim.
