B Ogbeiyalu Okoronkwo
A First Bank PLC customer, Ojo Eghosa Kingsley, has opted to go to prison than to refund the sum of N1.5b mistakenly credited into his account.
Reports has it that the suspect, Kingsley, was arrested by the Benin Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, over his conduct.
Thus, the EFCC charged him before the High Court on Monday 19th January, 2026 and secured his conviction before Justice W. I. Aziegbemhin of Edo State High Court, sitting in Benin City.
The convict, Kingsley, was prosecuted on one-count charge bordering on stealing while being a customer of First Bank and fraudulently took possession of over N1.5 billion erroneously credited to his account by the bank.
The charge against him read: ‘That you OJO EGHOSA KINGSLEY (M) sometime between June, 2025 to November, 2025 within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, did steal the aggregate sum of N1,507,502,182.24 (One Billion, Five Hundred and Seven Million, Five Hundred and Two Thousand, One Hundred and Eighty Two Naira, Twenty Four Kobo), property of First Bank Plc by fraudulently converting the said sum to your own use, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 387(1) of Criminal Law of Edo State 2022 and punishable under Section 394 of the same Law”.
He pleaded guilty to the charge when it was read to him, prompting the prosecution counsel, M. S. Dahiru, to pray the Court to convict and sentence him accordingly.
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However, counsel to the defendant pleaded with the Court to temper justice with mercy, stating that the defendant had become remorseful for his action.
The presiding judge, Justice Aziegbemhin, convicted and sentenced Ojo Eghosa Kingsley to one year imprisonment or a fine of N5 million.
The Court also ordered the convict to restitute First Bank Plc with the sum N272, 252,193,59 (Two Hundred and Seventy Two Million, Two Hundred and Fifty Two Thousand, One Hundred and Ninety Three Naira, Fifty Nine Kobo) within a stipulated period of time being the balance of the N1.5 billion.
The EFCC had during investigation recovered the sum of N802,420,000 from various bank accounts traced to the defendant, his mother and sister, which was handed over to the bank by the Ag. Zonal Director of the Benin Zonal Directorate,
Deputy Commander of the EFCC, DCE Sa’ad Hanafi Sa’ad, on Monday 12th January, 2026, while over three hundred million was recovered from the defendant’s account by the bank through transfer reversal.
Aside the restitution, conviction and sentence, the convict, Kingsley made an undertaking in writing to be of good behaviour in future if he fulfills the conditions and is released from prison
