Alleged N30m fraud: ex-FCMB manager faces trial Jan 30

A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on Tuesday fixed Jan. 30 for trial of Rosemary Usifo, a former Branch Manager of First City Monument Bank (FCMB), over N30 million fraud.

Usifo, a former manager of the Oke Arin branch of the defunct Finbank (now FCMB), is standing trial on a charge of fraud.

At the resumed hearing of the case on Tuesday, the prosecutor, Effiong Asuquo, informed the court that the Police Special Fraud Unit (SFU) could not produce the accused in court due to some challenges.

He, therefore, applied for a definite date for the commencement of trial and for an order to move the accused from detention at SFU to Kirikiri Prisons.

Asuquo said the inability to move the former bank manager to Kirikiri Prisons was as a result of the challenges faced in bringing her to court.

Justice Saliu Saidu adjourned the case to Jan. 30 for trial and ordered the accused to be remanded at the Kirikiri Prisons.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Usifo was arraigned on Dec. 5, 2013 on a charge of fraudulently removing N30 million from a customer's fixed deposit account.

She, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge and was ordered to be remanded at the SFU pending her bail application.

The prosecutor had alleged that the accused committed the offence in 2011.

He said that the accused forged a letter with which she fraudulently obtained the sum of N30 million from the account of a retired Deputy Inspector General of Police, Archibong Nkanga, a customer of the bank.

According to Asuquo, the accused, who had been at large since the commission of the crime in 2011, was apprehended by the police in November 2013.

He said the offence contravened Sections 1(2) (a), (c), and 3 (1), (2) of the Miscellaneous Offences Act, Laws of the Federation, 2004. NAN