Court Denied Kogi Assembly Candidate Involved in N1.4b Bank Hacking Bail

The Federal High Court sitting in Lagos yesterday denied bail to a Kogi State House of Assembly candidate Ismaila Yousuf Atumeyi and a former employee of Union Bank Abdulmalik Salau accused of hacking the computer network of Union Bank and stealing N1,403,343,400 billion.

The duo and a third defendant, one Ngene Joshua, were on Monday, arraigned by the Lagos Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on an 18-count charge before Justice Tijjani Ringim.

They pleaded not guilty.

Atumeyi and Salau applied for bail through their counsel Mr. Bolaji Ayorinde, SAN.

But EFCC counsel Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN, opposed the application and prayed for an accelerated hearing of the matter.

Justice Tijjani Ringim upheld Oyedepo’s arguments that the defendants were a flight risk.

“In all, I hold that the bail application filed and argued by Chief Bolaji Ayorinde, SAN, lacks merit and it is accordingly dismissed,” Justice Ringim held.

He remanded the defendants in the Ikoyi Correctional facility and adjourned till January 24, 2023, for trial.

The first defendant Atumeyi is the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) candidate for Ankpa 11 Constituency in next year’s House of Assembly election in Kogi.

EFCC charged the defendants with concealment of proceeds of fraud, money laundering and cybercrime.

The defendants were alleged to have hacked into the system of the commercial bank and defrauded the institution of over N1.4billion.

The court heard that they carried out a “modification of data held in the network of the bank, leading to the fraudulent transfer of the total sum of N1,403,343,400 to the account of FAV OIL AND GAS LIMITED.”

The agency allegedly recovered N326million and $140,500 from the black Escalade Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) of one of the defendants during an operation at his hideout in Queens Estate, Gwarinpa.

Oyedepo told the court in a charge numbered FHC/L/651C/2022, that the defendants committed the alleged offences between August and October 2022 in Lagos.