Court Remands Whistleblower, Blogger in Prison

By Dipo Olowookere

An online publisher, Mr Tega Oghenedoro, otherwise known as Fejiro Oliver, was on Friday remanded in prison by a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos.

Mr Oliver was arraigned by the police yesterday alongside a former employee of Sterling Bank, Mr Dennis Ukpabi, author of the book titled The Whistleblower, where he accused the few members of staff of the lender of involving in fraud and infidelity.

Mr Ukpabi said in his book that in November 2014, Sterling Bank Plc introduced a ‘Deposit Mobilization Scheme’ for its entire staff as an incentive to encourage them to source and mobilize deposits from members of the public, promising to reward the most outstanding staff who sourced the highest amount of deposit above the given target with a brand new Ford SUV and 1 percent of the total sum realized.

He narrated that four staff at the corporate headquarters of Sterling Bank Plc namely Adekanla Desalu, Eguru Nyenke, Janet Akpan and Kojusola Ajao colluded and conspired to defraud the bank by pulling together deposits into an account belonging to one of them, Kojusola Ajao, after monitoring funds from dormant accounts belonging to existing customers of the bank and paying it in Ajao’s name in other to win the prize.

He said Ms Ajao was announced by the bank as the winner of the Deposits Mobilization Scheme and on March 10, 2015, was awarded with the sum of N997,000 which was about 1 percent of the total amount mobilized and also given a brand new Ford SUV.

He alleged that immediately she received the money, she transferred and shared it among her three other colleagues with Desalu getting N269,250; Nyenke N240,000; and Akpan N238,500.

Following several emails sent to different management staffs of the bank by the whistleblower, the bank’s Audit Department was asked to investigate the alleged fraud, upon which the four staff were found culpable, leading to Ajao’s sack and the retrieval of the Ford Jeep from her.

Although the three others were placed on three-month suspension, Nyenke was promoted immediately after serving her suspension, a development linked to her alleged amorous affair with the bank’s Executive Director in charge of Operations and Services, Yemi Odubiyi, Mr Ukpabi alleged.

But when it was discovered that Mr Ukpabi was behind the anonymous emails that exposed the bank fraud, the authorities reportedly denied him his due promotion and prevented him from embarking on a Sick Leave for which he duly applied. The situation eventually led to his resignation and publishing of the “The Whistle Blower.”

The Nigerian blogger got involved in the matter when he reportedly used his medium, Secrets Reporters, to publish articles relating to the matter.

Those involved petitioned the Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of the Force Criminal Investigation Department in Abuja, alleging “threat to life, malicious publication and defamation of character.”

The police swung into action, arresting both Mr Ukpabi and Mr Oliver and charged them to court for cyber stalking.

At the court on Friday, the prosecuting counsel, a Superintendent of Police, Mr J. Oloruntoba, arraigned the men on a five-count charge bothering on alleged acts of “Cyber Stalking” punishable under the provisions of Section 24 of the Cyber Crimes (Prohibition and Prevention, etc.) Act 2015.

However, the defendants pleaded not guilty to all the charges, but their counsels could not secure the bail.

Consequently, the trial judge, Justice Mohammed Idris, ordered the suspects to be remanded at the Ikoyi Prisons and asked one of the defendants’ counsels, Mr Inibehe Effiong, to bring a formal application for bail and promised to hear it expeditiously.

Additional information from Sahara Reporters