A Federal High Court in Lagos yesterday sentenced a former acting
Managing Director of Century Microfinance Bank Limited, Olise Robinson,
to 19 years imprisonment for stealing N29 million from the bank.
Justice
Okon Abang convicted Robinson of five counts of stealing, signature
forgery, uttering of documents and criminal breach of trust.
According
to the Police Special Fraud Unit (SFU), Alagbon-Ikoyi, Lagos, Robinson
committed the offences while acting as the bank’s head between June 2008
and November 2009.
Prosecution counsel Chukwu Agwu said the
offences contravened Sections 390(6), 463 and 468 of the Criminal Code
2008 and were punishable under Section 467 of the same Act.
Robinson pleaded not guilty.
During the trial, Agwu called four witnesses and tendered several exhibits.
The defendant testified for himself.
Convicting
Robinson yesterday, Justice Abang noted that the defendant failed to
give evidence that he didn’t receive the amount and provided no evidence
to show that he invested the money in Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
Treasure Bills.
He said: “The prosecution has been able to
sufficiently prove the essential ingredients of the allegations against
the defendant.
“Consequently, I find the defendant guilty of all the counts of the charge”.
The
convict’s counsel, Mr Oyelola Damilola, offered an allocutus on his
client’s behalf, asking the court to tamper justice with mercy.
“He
is the only breadwinner of his young family. He is also a first time
offender, with no previous criminal record. He has also been remorseful
about his action,” Damilola told the judge.
But Agwu opposed him.
The
prosecutor told the judge to disregard Damilola’s plea because “the
convict never showed any sign of remorse while the trial lasted.”
Agwu
argued that “in sentencing the convict, the court must look at
principles of sentencing whether it is a mitigating or aggravating
factor.”
He said the convict’s case “is constipated with
aggravating factors,” which prevented Robinson from being entitled “to
leniency or liberal conditions.”
Following the submissions, Justice Abang discountenanced the defendant’s allocutus.
The
judge held: “This is a case that the convict is a hardened criminal
that has no human sympathy. He was entrusted with investors’ monies. He
inflicted pains on the investors who lodged their monies in his bank
while he fraudulently moved the money to his account in Guaranty Trust
Bank (GTB).
“He is an avenger of evil; he is a fraudulent and
lawless person. He planted thorns; he is not expected to gather flowers.
Drastic situations deserve drastic solutions.
“The convict is hereby
sentenced to seven years in count one, three years in count two, three
years in count three, three years in count four and three years in count
five.
“The terms of the sentence are to run concurrently”.
In the charge, Robinson was said to have converted the sum of N5 million which the bank reserved to buy CBN’s Treasury Bills.
He
was also said to have fraudulently withdrawn N100,000, for 15 months,
which he claimed was security vote without any approval and which he was
unable to account for.
He was also accused of fraudulently
diverting N9 million belonging to different investors of the bank to his
private account with GTB and forging several documents to cover his
tracks.
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