A high court in Kano has sentenced Rabiu Hassan Dawaki, an ex-staff member of a first-generation commercial bank to four years in a correctional facility after he was found guilty on seven-count charges in a case of conspiracy, criminal breach of trust and falsification of accounts to the tune of N561 million.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, had since February 2015 arraigned the trio of Rabiu Hassan Dawaki, Abdullahi Umar Rano, and Samuel Obende, who are all ex-workers of the bank for betraying the trust of their employers and conspiring to defraud the bank by diverting the funds to their own use.
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They were responsible for receiving, processing and distributing money to all their bank’s cash centres spread across Kano, Katsina and Jigawa states.
However, the duo of Abdullahi Umar Rano and Samuel Obende, died within the period of the case, leaving only Dawaki to be found guilty on seven out of the 28 charges before the court.
The accused persons allegedly altered figures to show that they made cash deliveries to designated branches whereas the monies were never delivered.
Delivering her judgment, Justice Dije Abiki also asked the convict to refund all monies taken without an option of a fine; rather, additional fines should be imposed in case the convict failed to meet up.
EFCC counsel, Barrister Aisha A.T., who lauded the judgment, however, said ‘‘we wanted more but we shall pursue the rest part of the case especially that to do with money laundering at the federal high court’’.
On his part, the counsel to the convict, Barrister Ma’aruf Yakasai, said “We shall discuss it with the client and see how we can determine our options of appeal.’’
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