From Ighomuaye Lucky, Benin City
A Benin, Edo State, High Court on Friday remanded a former manager of the United Bank for Africa, Mrs. Florence Onome Odior, her husband, Sunday Odior, and two others in prison custody for allegedly defrauding one Moses Obozohae, a customer of the bank of N55, 840,000
The accused persons, Odior and the four others, were arraigned before a High Court in Benin City by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on June 8, 2017, on 19 counts of fraud, stealing, conspiracy and converting the said amount to personal use.
The principal suspect, Florence Odior, was alleged to have defrauded, tendered a forged document titled TD0990001445, dated August 2, 2012, to Obozokhae as genuine.
The first and second accused persons’ counsel, Mrs. E.C. Ekejiube, argued that the accused had always reported to the EFCC office as requested and the first accused person was presently receiving medical treatment in hospital, as receipts in the affidavit with the medical certificates showed that the first accused was not medically alright.
The counsel told the court that the second accused person, SundaOdior, was the husband of Florence Odior. That they both had children as well as aged parents whom they were taking care of, so keeping them in prison custody would would hinder their care.
Ekejiube, therefore, appealed to the court to grant them bail as they would not jump bail, which the applicants have never done.
Counsel to the fourth accused person, Barrister Chukwuka Enegide, said the accused have always been regular in court and have no reason to jump bail.
The presiding Judge, High Court (5) Ohimai Ovbiagele, ordered that the four accuse persons be remanded in prison custody and adjourned the case to June 21, 2017, for ruling on their bail application.