*First Bank of Nigeria Limited reportedly terminates the appointments of about 120 employees, including full-time and contract staff of its large Operations Department, months after uncovering certain Tijani Muiz Adeyinka, a Manager on the team, who apparently diverted N40 billion customers鈥� funds over a period of two years undetected

Isola Moses | 绿帽献妻

The First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) Limited has reportedly sacked over 100 employees a few months after discovering that certain Tijani Muiz Adeyinka, a Manager on the operations team of the leading financial institution, diverted N40 billion over a period of two years undetected until the lid of the scam blew open this year.

It was learnt that Adeyinka, who is still on the run, used his authorisation to approve chargebacks to accounts he controlled at the time.

At least appointments of 120 employees, including full-time and contract staff of First Bank鈥檚 reportedly large Operations Department, were termination letters July 2024, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter.

Besides the Head of Transactions at the time was also fired, the bank also told those employees accused of laxity in performing their assigned duties that they ought to have detected the colossal fraud earlier, TechCabal report also said.

The Management team of First Bank Limited believed that it was impossible for a racket of that scale and timeline to have been executed without the knowledge of Adeyinka鈥檚 superiors.

Speaking on the development, an employee of First Bank, who solicited anonymity, stated: 鈥淭he CEO said there would be zero tolerance for supervisory negligence.鈥�

It is recalled that huge fraud was first reported May 2024 as regards how Adeyinka, who was the final line of authorisation on his team, activated his scheme unnoticed for two years.

Though the bank had discovered the fraud March this year, First Bank 鈥渕anaged鈥� to keep the matter under wraps, while suspending several operations team members indefinitely, according to report.

Uncovering the fraud at a Lagos Branch

Earlier, report of the fraud that was uncovered at First Bank had sparked considerable chatter on social media,

Commenting on the matter while amplifying the reportage of the fraud at First Bank, Ndusuisi Ekekwe, Lead Faculty at Tekedia, said he had always thought it curious and perhaps wrong the manner of the sudden leadership changes.

Ekekwe wrote via his verified social media account that 鈥渨e are hearing that one demon operated there for two years and cleared N44billion, after an employee at a Lagos branch allegedly diverted funds in a scheme that went undetected for almost two years.鈥�

The confirmation of the fraud by the Management was through a letter dated May 10, 2024, and purportedly written to the Lagos State Commissioner of Police.

The bank reportedly stated: 鈥淲e hereby bring to your notice the discovery of fraudulent transactions into various transactions within, and outside the bank and request your good offices to set up the machinery of investigation with a view to unravel the circumstances surrounding the said fraud and to get the culprits apprehended to face the wrath of the law.鈥�

In regard to how Adeyinka carried out his scheme in the bank, it was discovered that the alleged perpetrator made fraudulent transactions to his wife鈥檚 account domiciled in another bank, and from where the funds were then transferred to other beneficiaries totalling 34.

The funds, from this point, developed wings and flew into a total of 1,190 accounts in various banks subsequently, according to report.

Police interrogation, detention of fraud suspects before dismissal

First Bank, however, became more aggressive after the fraud became public in May, and the Nigeria Police questioned several employees of the bank.

The security agents also detained several staff at the Police Lion鈥檚 Building for at least six hours, a close source with direct knowledge of the incident said.

Those employees needed to post bail before they were released, report stated.

Meanwhile, the bank is said to have placed restrictions on all their personal bank accounts except their First Bank accounts.

Abrupt resignation of ex-CEO after uncovering N42bn fraud?

Dr. Adesola Adeduntan, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of First Bank at the time, who had joined the bank since 2014, was also noted to have abruptly resigned April 2024, eight months before the end of his tenure and less than a month after the fraud was uncovered in the financial institution.

The immediate past CEO of the bank had resigned from his job in a brief letter sent from Washington, D.C., United States (US), where he was attending the Annual World Bank/IMF meetings.

He had said: 鈥淚 have, however decided to proceed on retirement with effect from 20 April 2024 to pursue other interests.

But First Bank 鈥渉as never explained the circumstance of its CEO鈥檚 departure,鈥� a report also said.

How Olusegun Alebiosu takes charge as Managing Director/CEO

The bank, however named Mr. Olusegun Alebiosu as Managing Director and CEO after Adeduntan鈥檚 exit from the banking group.

Alebiosu was until this appointment the Executive Director, Chief Risk Officer and Executive Compliance Officer since January 2022.

Prior to his new appointment, he was the Group Executive/Chief Risk Officer, a position he held since 2016.

绿帽献妻 reports First Bank Group employs over 16,000 staff.

The bank operates four key strategic business units: retail banking, corporate banking, commercial banking, and public sector banking, and as of December 2019, the bank had assets were worth N5.9 trillion, a report said.

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