Three man panel of Justices at the Federal Court of Appeal in Enugu State have upheld the decision of the lower High Court that had earlier sentenced a staff of Guaranty Trust Bank, GTBank, Onyekachi Nwosu to seven years imprisonment in line with the enacted Nigeria law of Failed Banks or Recovery of Debts and Financial Malpractices Act which the Convict fraudulently used the property of one Mrs Adebimpe Foluke to apply and disburse ₦50 million loan into the savings account of GTBank customer and withdrew ₦40 million of the money from the beneficial savings account for his personal use, this is coming at a critical period many Nigerians are doubting the credibility and integrity of GTBank management after a popular Human Rights activist, Martins Vincent Otse aka VeryDarkMan was arrested last Friday at the exist gate of GTbank branch in Abuja by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC when the activist went with his mother to seek clarification over apparent unauthorized constant savings withdrawals as loan repayments from his mother savings asset with the bank, with the activist mother saying, she never took loan from the bank, and EFCC arresting and releasing VeryDarkMan after almost five days in detention without specifically stating the alleged offence or offences committed by the activist may have created room for some level of insinuations in certain quarters that sees GTBank management as people probably using the state security assets to commit act of criminal intimidation and oppression of  complainers to cover up the Bank suspected loan fraud and financial malpractices.

According to EFCC news release made available about an hour ago, “the Enugu Division of the Court of Appeal has upheld the conviction and seven years prison sentence of one Onyekachi Nwosu, a former employee of Guaranty Trust Bank for his commission of over ₦50 million, (Fifty Million Naira) loan fraud.

Nwosu was prosecuted by the Enugu Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC on a nine-count charge, bordering on forgery and obtaining by false pretence to the tune of ₦50 million and was convicted and sentenced by Justice R O Dugbo Oghoghorie of Federal High Court, sitting in Independence Layout, Enugu on January 14, 2021.

The convict, who was an account officer of one Anyaso Chinedu, owner of Floxy Aluminum Odiofele Products Limited, used a forged document titled “An Application to Mortgage, Consent to Mortgage and Tripartite Legal Mortgage” to deceive GTB into believing that one Mrs Adebimpe Foluke pledged her property as collateral for the said loan to Floxy Aluminium Odiofele Products Limited.

Investigations revealed that he benefited ₦40 million from the fraudulent act by directly withdrawing it from the account of Floxy Aluminium Odiofele Products Limited.

In the course of his trial, prosecution counsel, Assistant Commander of the EFCC, ACE II Mainforce Adaka Ekwu called four witnesses and tendered 16 exhibits which were admitted in evidence as “Exhibit EFCC 1-16.”

At the end of the trial, Justice Oghoghorie held that the EFCC proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and convicted and sentenced Nwosu accordingly.

Dissatisfied with the judgement, the convict approached the Appeal Court, praying it to set aside the judgement of the trial court, while Ekwu, the prosecution counsel prayed the court to uphold the judgment of the High Court and dismiss the appeal on the grounds that “the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.”

The Court of Appeal set aside the convictions from the trial court on counts one to eight but upheld that on Count 9.

Count nine of the charge reads: “That you, Onyekachi Nwosu, sometime in September, 2010 in Enugu within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court of Nigeria, while being an officer of Guaranty Trust Bank and being connected with the grant of loan, knowingly processed and facilitated the grant loan of Fifty Million Naira, (₦50,000,000.00) to Floxy Aluminum Odiofele Products Limited, received the sum of Forty Million Naira, (₦40,000,000.00) as personal gratification, out of the said loan after it was granted, thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 15 (1) (a) (iii) and punishable under Section 16 (1) (a) of the Failed Banks (Recovery of Debts) and Financial Malpractices in Banks Act Cap. F2 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria.”

In a unanimous judgement of a three-member panel of the Appeal Court, delivered by Justice Zainab Babe Abubakar, the Court of Appeal held that “the evidence of the First Prosecution Witness, PW1 corroborated the confession of the appellant that he collected ₦40 million from the loan sum of ₦50 million granted to the third respondent (Floxy Aluminum Odiofele Products Limited).

“The appellant has admitted that he collected ₦40 million from the loan sum, which has proved the last ingredient of the offence against the appellant.

Consequently, the conviction of the appellant on this Count 9 of the charge by the trial court was in order, in my humble view,” the court said.

It would be recalled that we had reported that the Nigeria anti-corruption police, Economic and Financial Crimes commission, EFCC may have failed to state the alleged crime or crimes committed by a Human Rights activist, Martins Vincent Otse aka VeryDarkMan since 5 days, over 120 hours the anti corruption police arrested him in Abuja when he went with his mother to GTBank to get clarification from the bank over constant apparent unauthorized withdrawals effected by the bank on the woman’s savings account, although VeryDarkMan was arrested alongside his friend, Steven Avuara aka C-Pack but according to the statement issued by the activist lawyer’s  legal chamber, Deji Adeyanju and Partners, Steven Avuara was released shortly after he was arrested on Friday, with the Chamber insisting that as at on Tuesday, EFCC have not been able to state the crime or crimes their client, VeryDarkMan committed, rather, as at on Monday, four operatives of the EFCC engaged the Human Rights activist in hours long questions that borders on why he allegedly monetized his social media pages, his public comments about a Gospel musician, his tax records and his source of income, this, apparently authenticated the BBC report that the EFCC confirmed to it that VeryDarkMan was arrested and detained for cyber talking, a BBC report which EFCC swiftly launched media war against the British media, tagging the BBC report as a fake news, and in retaliation, the BBC Pidgin replied EFCC with a post that its report is correct,  and undoubtedly, the Crime of Cyber Talking may not be the duty of the EFCC as such is apparently the constitutional responsibility of the Nigeria Police Force, and if true that the Human Rights activist was detained for Cyber Talking, it shows that the country ruling political party, the All Progressives Congress, APC may have questions to answer, the APC had earlier issued threat message to the Human Rights activist after the activist called the Nigeria Senate President, Godswill Akpabio out over the Senate President traveling to Rome in Italy to attend Pope Francis burial, while  almost daily killings and unabated high level of insecurity are observed in several states in the West Africa country, and further more, EFCC in a statement on Tuesday, only issued an apparent vague statement that he received series of petitions against the activist as a way to try to justify why the Human Rights activist was arrested and detained, but, the anti corruption commission probably could not make any reasonable allegation against the Human Rights defender even when the commission confirmed in the statement that it has been investigating the allegations filed against VeryDarkMan before the activist was arrested in a commando like style at the exit gate of GTBank.

We had reported that there is apparent tension in Nigeria over the arrest of a popular Human Rights activist, Martins Vincent Otse aka VeryDarkMan or VDM who was allegedly seized by Nigeria Security operatives in a manner that have kept many wondering, suspecting acts of oppression and intimidation based on threats issued by the ruling political party, All Progressives Congress, APC against the Human Rights activist, after the activist condemned the Nigeria Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, for traveling to Vatican in Italy to attend Pope Francis burial ceremony, while, he said, the Senate President has failed to visit states where almost daily burial ceremonies are often held, in some states like Plateau, Benue, Kwara, Enugu and Ogun States where gunmen, bandits are killing the Senate President fellow citizens in large numbers unabated in recent time in Nigeria, and angered by the talks, the APC South South Zonal Organising Secretary, Blessing Agbomhere issued seven days ultimatum to VeryDarkMan to apologize to the Senate President who led five-man Federal Government delegation to Rome to attend the late Catholic Head funeral ceremony, but immediately, VeryDarkMan in a video issued the public apology to the victims of insecurity in the West Africa country, and in the video, he further accused and condemned the Senate President and other  Nigeria leaders for being insensitivity to their institutional responsibilities of protecting lives, saying, insecurity, killing hundreds of people often in Nigeria is as a result of Leadership failure on the part of the Senate President and members of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu led Government, and surprisingly, Deji Adeyanju, the lawyer to the activist, said that VeryDarkMan was arrested at Guaranty Trust Bank, GTB in Abuja on Friday in a more dehumanizing manner, and after he was trapped at the Exit Door at the GTB premises for five minutes, some security operatives came and cover his face with a black cloth before he was led away, and for more than 48 hours, Nigeria authority is yet to issue statement over the arrest of the Human Rights activist who had on Friday went with her Mother to the GTB bank to get clarification over the unauthorised withdrawals constantly done on his mother savings account, after the activist suspected that someone may have used his mother National Identification Number, NIN to take loan from the GTB bank.