The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Wednesday convicted and sentenced two Access bank staff, one Agbo John Agama and Edoh Steve – to three years imprisonment for fraud.
They were convicted by Justice Mojisola Olajuwon for conspiracy, aiding and abetting fraud to the tune of nine million and four hundred thousand naira (N9,400,000).
The convicts were prosecuted on one count by the Makurdi Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The anti-graft agency recently said it secured a total of 3,785 (Three Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty-five) convictions across all its Commands in 2022. The figure, which emerged from a review of the Commission’s performance in the outgone year, shows a 70.5% improvement over its record for 2021(2220). It also represents a 98.93% success rate in prosecution given that the Commission lost only 41 cases, representing 1.07% within the period.
As it was in 2021, the Lagos Command of the Agency recorded the most convictions-765, closely followed by the Ibadan Command with 573 convictions and the Port Harcourt Zonal Command- 567, while the headquarters recorded 314 convictions.
The conviction secured by the Commission in 2022 is the highest by the EFCC since its inception and sustains an upward trajectory which began shortly after the emergence of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
In 2015, EFCC recorded a total of 103 convictions. This shot to 195 convictions in 2016, the first full year in office of the Buhari administration. The figure improved to 312 in 2018, 1,280 in 2019, dropped slightly to 976 convictions in 2020 and then moved up to 2,220 in 2021.