Two bank officials- Freeman Austin Jacob and Umar Abdullahi- alongside two others, Ahmed Bashir and Abdulhakim Musa (aka Gandu), allegedly conspired to produce an Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) card to steal money from one Alhaji Sani Muntari.
The suspects who were arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, before Justice Simon Akpah Amobeda of the Federal High Court, Kano, were said to have produced the ATM card in the name of Muntari.
According to EFCC, they used the ATM to steal the sum of N20,000,000 from his bank account.
The defendants perpetrated the fraud using the SIM card of the account holder which was stolen by Bashir, the third defendant.
This was used to produce an ATM card with the help of the first and second defendants.
Investigation by EFCC revealled that some of the proceeds of the theft went into the bank account of the fourth defendant-Abdulkarim Musa- who’s a friend to the third defendant, Ahmed Bashir.
They all pleaded not guilty to the charges read to them and counsel for the prosecution, Aisha Tahar Habib, requested that they be remanded in prison.
She further urged the court to fix a date for the commencement of trial.
However, the counsel representing the 1st and 2nd defendants made an oral bail application on behalf of his clients.
The application was opposed by the prosecution counsel on the grounds that the application ought to be formal.
Meanwhile, L. A Umar who represented the 4th defendant informed that she intends to file a formal bail application and subsequently prayed the court for a date to do same and serve the prosecution.
Justice Amobeda agreed with the prosecution that bail applications should be made formally as the court is a court of record.
He subsequently remanded the defendant and adjourned the matter till June 26, 2023 for hearing of bail applications and commencement of trial.
