Osun drags two bank officials to court over stealing, fraud

For allegedly fabricating an account belonging to an immigration officer, Badiru Adeyemi Oluwafemi, the Osun State government brought two bank employees, Kehinde Oludare and Awolola Olalekan, before the State High Court located in Ila-Orangun.

The pair, who were associated with the First Bank’s Inisha branch, were allegedly serving as Badiru’s business manager and account officer, respectively, at the time of the alleged crime in 2015.

The case was previously heard by four different judges at the Okuku division of the court before being transferred to Justice G. Lawal of the Ila-Orangun division, where it has endured a string of protracted adjournments.

The two defendants weren’t there when the case was brought up in court, but their attorney, Olamide Olabode, informed the judge that Olalekan had travelled to Imo State and was therefore unable to appear.

The state’s attorney, Biodun Badiora, voiced concern over the prolonged delay in the case and urged the court to take swift action.
Lawal, the trial judge, also noted that the case file was not well maintained because it appears unclean, suggesting that the case has been ongoing for a while.

2015 saw the defendants facing a five-count accusation of theft, maintaining a phoney account, falsifying account books, and fraudulent false accounting.

The crimes violated provisions 435 (B), 438 (B), and 390 (9) of the criminal code legislation, Cap 3 laws of Osun State 2002.
Badiru, the owner of the account, had testified in court that the two suspects had deposited N1 million into his First Bank Plc. account without his permission. He claimed that the two bank employees intended to cheat him with their acts.

The two suspects, he claimed, “made or were aware of making fraudulent entries into my account when they created, without my permission, a loan account with the number 3896210013660 in my name, pretending to demonstrate that I took the loan on the aforementioned account.”

For the arraignment and hearing, the court set September 21, 2023, as the new date.