Abdulmajeed Agboola, a staff member of Access Bank Plc has narrated how the bank’s former employee, Olajide Ogunmoroti, allegedly accessed the bank’s server through a private laptop, resulting in a system glitch on customers account that led to a N5 billion fraud.
Agboola was presented before before Justice O.O. Abike-Fadipe of the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos on Friday by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as its first prosecution witness in the alleged N5,726,994,110.23 fraud case against the bank’s former employee, Olajide Ogunmoroti, Michael Igbomina, David Onyeike, and Moses Iruolaje.
In EFCC filings, the defendants are being prosecuted on an amended 10-count charge bordering on stealing, retention of proceeds of crime, money laundering, obtaining credit by false pretence, and unauthorized access to computer materials.
During the court session, led in evidence by the prosecution counsel Abdulhamid L. Tukur, Agboola informed the court that Ogunmoroti was allegedly the ICT representative of the Abakaliki branch of Access Bank.According to the witness, there was a glitch in the bank’s server, which was allegedly traced to the Abakaliki branch during investigations.
“There was a fraudulent overdraft limit maintained on our customers’ accounts, which enabled them to make withdrawals from unfunded accounts. We observed suspicious overdraft limits maintained on customers’ accounts, which allowed them to access funds and transfer them to accounts maintained in both Access Bank and other banks.
“We identified customers whose accounts benefited from the suspicious overdraft maintenance with total exposure of over N5 billion,” the witness added.
The witness stated that when the CCTV footage of the bank was checked, it was discovered that the suspicious activity had been wiped out. During investigations, everything allegedly pointed to Ogunmoroti, who, according to the witness, allegedly “admitted that he used a private laptop in connection with the bank’s server through which they gained access to the bank’s data.” The witness told the court that the use of personal laptops by bank staff was not allowed under the bank’s policy.
After his testimony, the prosecution counsel applied to tender in evidence the petitions from the bank regarding the system glitch. The document was subsequently admitted into evidence by the court, and the case was adjourned until May 20, 2025, for the continuation of the trial.