AGF takes over prosecution of Polaris Bank official for alleged fraud of N16.5 billion

Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice Lateef Fagbemi took over the prosecution Polaris Bank and employee Chinenye Duru, accused of fraud of N16.5 billion.

The Office of the Inspector General of Police, which opened the case in December 2023, accused Polaris Bank and Mr Duru of fraud by misappropriating over N16.5 billion from various customer accounts over almost eight years.

Police have identified the bank customer and victim of the alleged crime as Onukogu Victor Hezekiah, the spiritual leader of the Living Christ Mission Church in Onitsha, Anambra State, southeastern Nigeria.

According to the indictment, the defendants diverted money from Mr. Hezekiah’s accounts between 2017 and 2023, while Mr. Duru served as a client account executive. Mr. Hezekiah is affectionately known to his supporters as Daddy Hezkiah.

A lawyer at the AGF’s office, VJ Alma, informed Justice Inyanga Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja that Mr Fagbemi had ordered the case to be taken over from the police in the exercise of his powers as the prosecutor of the AGF under Section 174(1)(b) of the Nigerian Constitution.

Mr Alma did not provide any reason why the AGF office decided to take over the case.

“We have written a letter to the Nigerian Police informing them of this position and requesting the original case file in a letter dated May 29, 2024,” the lawyer said. “We are still waiting for the original case file.”

Mr Ekwo asked Mr Alma if the AGF office had written to the court about the incident and the lawyer replied in the affirmative.

Mr. Alma appealed to the court to set the hearing date for the day following the beginning of the judges’ annual vacation.

The judge then ordered Mr Duru’s lawyer, Chidi Ezenwafor, to advise Polaris Bank, the first defendant in the case, to hire a lawyer to represent it in the matter.

Mr Ekwo adjourned the hearing of the case to November 18 and 19.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that on January 19, the Inspector General of Police charged Mr Duru with 11 charges.

He did not plead guilty to the charges against him.

The judge remanded Mr Duru in custody until his bail application was considered.

Polaris Bank Plc and Mr Duru are the first and second defendants in case number FHC/ABJ/CR/603/2023.

Fees

In the charges, the prosecution accused Polaris Bank and Mr Duru of fraud by withdrawing N16.5 billion from Mr Hezekiah’s accounts numbered 1040495455 and 1060104735 between November 17, 2017 and August 14, 2023.

During the same period, the prosecution accused the accused of also fraudulently withdrawing an amount of N75.534 million from another client account number 4010023601.

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According to the testimony, the accused persons also defrauded N13.3 million from client account number 40910106770 and N16.3 million from his second account number 411054152 during the same period.

The indictment stated that the defendants withdrew money without the consent of the account holders, with the intention of using it for their own purposes.

The police have charged the accused with offences under Sections 18 (2) and 21 (a) of the Prevention and Prohibition of Money Laundering Act, 2022. Certain offences are punishable under Section 18 (3) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, the police said.

(NAN)

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