By Romanus Okoye, Lagos

Justice Lateefat Okunnu of the Lagos High Court, Ikeja, on Tuesday sentenced a former Managing Director of defunct Finbank Plc, Okey Nwosu, to three years imprisonment.

Justice Okunnu handed down the sentence after she found the former bank boss and three other directors of the bank guilty of stealing over N18 billion from Finbank Plc, now First City Monument Bank (FCMB).

Convicted alongside Nwosu are three former directors of the defunct bank: Dayo Famoroti, Danjuma Ocholi and Agnes Ebubedike.

They were arraigned before the court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on a 26-count charge of stealing and illegal conversion.

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The convicts were first arraigned in 2013 before Justice Okunnu, but the Court of Appeal had on November 21, 2013, quashed the charge brought against them by the EFCC and set them free.

The EFCC, however, appealed to the Supreme Court, which upturned the Appeal Court judgment and ordered Nwosu and others to return to the high court for their trial.

In her judgment delivered yesterday, the judge sentenced two of the convicts, Okey Nwosu and Dayo Famoroti, to a three-year jail term. The court also ordered the duo to repay N18 billion they stole.

The third defendant, Danjuma Ocholi, was sentenced to 12 months in jail, while the fourth defendant, Agnes Ebubedike, was sentenced to six months of community service.