Ex-convict Charged by EFCC Over N12 Million Theft Allegation

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) presented charges against ex-convict Oluokun Adekola at the Lagos State Special Offences Court in Ikeja on Monday for an alleged theft involving N12 million.

According to a communiqué from the EFCC's spokesperson, Dele Oyewale, Adekola was arraigned on a revised count for theft. The accused, who previously faced fraud charges in 2020, entered a plea of not guilty to the new allegations.

In the accusation, the EFCC stated that Adekola conspired with other individuals, currently at large, to obscure and disguise the true source of the N12 million that was deposited into his account. This was allegedly achieved through transactions converting the funds into cash via Point of Sale (POS) agents.

It was claimed that this N12 million belonged to a larger sum of over N3 billion (N3,091,441,849) that was stolen from accounts held with FCMB, through unauthorized access and fraudulent manipulation of mobile banking applications.

Upon reading the charges, Adekola acknowledged his guilt. As a result, the prosecution team, comprising lawyers M.K. Bashir and E.S. Okongwu, urged the court to set a date for the examination of the facts of the case and to impose a sentence.

They further motioned that Adekola be held in a correctional facility pending the court's decision. Judge Rahman Oshodi has scheduled a review of the case for 17 March, advising that the defendant remain in custody until then.

This is not Adekola's first encounter with the law; he was previously convicted for fraud in 2020. On 23 July of that year, a federal high court in Ibadan, presided over by Judge Joyce Abdulmalik, sentenced him to 20 years in prison for defrauding a Taiwanese citizen out of $22,300. He had been tried on six charges of obtaining money by false pretense, successfully prosecuted by the EFCC's Ibadan Zonal Directorate.