First Bank Customer Chooses Prison Over Refund of N1.5bn Mistaken Credit

A customer of First Bank Plc, Ojo Eghosa Kingsley, has been sentenced to one year imprisonment or an option of a N5 million fine for fraudulently converting over N1.5 billion mistakenly credited to his bank account.

Kingsley was arrested by the Benin Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and charged before the Edo State High Court in Benin City on Monday, January 19, 2026.

He was prosecuted on a one-count charge of stealing before Justice W. I. Aziegbemhin. The charge stated that Kingsley, between June and November 2025, fraudulently converted the sum of N1,507,502,182.24, which was the property of First Bank Plc, to his personal use, an offence contrary to Section 387(1) of the Criminal Law of Edo State 2022 and punishable under Section 394 of the same law.

Kingsley pleaded guilty when the charge was read to him, prompting the prosecution counsel, M. S. Dahiru, to urge the court to convict and sentence him accordingly. His defence counsel, however, appealed for leniency, telling the court that the defendant had shown remorse over his actions.

In his judgment, Justice Aziegbemhin convicted Kingsley and sentenced him to one year imprisonment with an option of a N5 million fine. The court further ordered him to restitute First Bank Plc with the sum of N272,252,193.59, being the outstanding balance of the N1.5 billion, within a stipulated period.
Investigations by the EFCC revealed that N802,420,000 was recovered from various bank accounts linked to the defendant, his mother, and his sister.

The recovered funds were handed over to First Bank Plc by the Acting Zonal Director of the EFCC Benin Zonal Directorate, Deputy Commander of the EFCC, DCE Sa’ad Hanafi Sa’ad, on Monday, January 12, 2026. Additionally, over N300 million was recovered directly from Kingsley’s account through a transfer reversal by the bank.

As part of the judgment, Kingsley also signed a written undertaking to be of good behaviour upon fulfilling the court’s conditions and securing his release from custody.