Witness from Access Bank presented by EFCC in N2.7bn fraud case involving couple

On February 2, 2024, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) presented its first prosecution witness, Chibueze Chukwuma, against Ruth Idowu and Oriyomi Idowu in a case involving an alleged N2.7bn fraud. Chukwuma, who is the Team Lead of the Regulatory Enquiries Unit at Access Bank, testified before Justice Mojisola Dada of the Special Offences Court in Ikeja, Lagos.

The defendants are facing 20-count charges, including obtaining money by false pretense, money laundering, stealing, retention of stolen property, and forgery.

The total amount involved in the alleged fraud is N2,757,188,000.00. The EFCC had arraigned the defendants on November 28, 2023, along with several companies owned by Ruth Idowu, including Food Commodity Processing Enterprise, Bonway Food Processing Company Limited, Samee Idowu Company Limited, and Farmex Integrated Companies Limited.

The charges against the defendants state that they conspired to defraud Creditpro Business Support Services Ltd by falsely claiming to have a genuine Local Purchase Order (LPO) from various vendors. The alleged fraudulent activities took place between March 31, 2022, and May 17, 2023, within the jurisdiction of the court.

The individual stated that they were familiar with Loiry Ventures and Yocli Ventures, as they were customers of their bank. They received a letter of inquiry from the EFCC, requesting the account opening packages and statements of account for these customers, and they responded accordingly.

They identified the letter of inquiry and the bank’s response, which included the requested documents. These documents were then submitted as evidence against the defendants. There were no objections from the defendants’ counsels, and Justice Dada admitted the documents as Exhibit P.

The individual further identified the signatories for each customer and highlighted the inflows from Creditpro Business Support Services into the account of Food Commodity Processing Enterprise, where the defendants were signatories.

During cross-examination, they maintained that the defendants were indeed signatories to the accounts where the money was transferred. After the testimony of the first witness, Justice Dada adjourned the trial until March 20, 21, and 22, 2024.