A High Court in Enugu has sentenced two former bank officials, Sani Endurance Aferokhe and Hillary Odo, to prison for criminally diverting over ₦10.3 million belonging to bank customers, most of them pensioners.
The duo were convicted by Justice A.O. Onovo of the Enugu State High Court sitting in Independence Layout, following a prosecution by the Enugu Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The EFCC had arraigned the former bankers on January 18, 2016, on a 15-count charge bordering on conspiracy, forgery and stealing, involving the unlawful diversion of ₦10,300,000 from customers’ accounts while they were staff members of Intercontinental Bank Plc, now Access Bank Plc.
According to court documents, the defendants abused their positions to steal millions of naira from customer accounts.
One of the counts revealed that on November 21, 2012, the convicts unlawfully withdrew ₦4,440,000 from an account belonging to one Udekwu F.A.O., while another count detailed the theft of ₦2,113,610.40 from the account of Onuora George on October 12, 2012.
Count seven of the charge reads: Sani Endurance Aferokhe and Hillary Odo on or about the 21st day of November, 2012 at Nsukka within the jurisdiction of the Honourable Court, while as servants of Intercontinental Bank Plc (now Access Bank Plc), stole the sum of Four Million, Four Hundred and Forty-four Thousand Naira (N4, 440, 000. 00) property of Intercontinental Bank Plc (now Access Bank Plc) from a customer account with account name Udekwu F. A. O with number 00237808311 domiciled in Intercontinental Bank Plc (now Access Bank Plc) and thereby committed an offence.”
Count two of the charge reads: “Sani Endurance Aferokhe and Hillary Odo on or about the 12th day of October 2012 at Nsukka within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, while as servants of Intercontinental Bank Plc (now Access Bank Plc), stole the sum of Two Million, One Hundred and Thirteen Thousand, Six Hundred and Ten Naira, forty Kobo (N2, 113, 610. 40) property of Intercontinental Bank Plc (now Access Bank Plc) from a customer account with account name Onuora George with account number 0023781315 domiciled in Intercontinental Bank Plc (now Access Bank Plc) and thereby committed an offence.”
The offences were said to be contrary to Section 459(a) of the Criminal Code Law, Cap 30, Laws of Enugu State, 2004.
The defendants pleaded not guilty, prompting a full trial. During proceedings, the EFCC, through its counsel, Assistant Commander of the Commission, Michael Ikechukwu Ani, presented five witnesses and tendered several documentary exhibits to establish the case against the accused persons.
In his judgment delivered on Friday, December 22, 2025, Justice Onovo dismissed counts six and nine but found the defendants guilty on several others.
The second defendant, Hillary Odo, was convicted on counts four and seven and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment on each count, with an option of a ₦100,000 fine per count.
The first defendant, Sani Endurance Aferokhe, was convicted on counts one, two, three, five, eight, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15.
He was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment on each of the counts, except count fifteen, which attracted a three-year jail term. Each count also carried an option of a ₦100,000 fine.
However, the convicts, former staff of Access Bank, bagged their imprisonment when they conspired amongst themselves to reactivate three accounts belonging to customers of the bank who happened to be pensioners without their consent and diverted the said sum for their personal benefits.
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