Dawaki, Ex-Union Bank Staff Jailed 17 Years for Fraud, to Refund N93m

The Kano State High Court has convicted one Rabiu Dawaki, former head of Operations, Bello Road Cash Center of Union Bank Plc in Kano, of charges of conspiracy and criminal breach of trust.

A combination of photos of Rabiu Dawaki, released by the EFCC on November 23, 2020

Justice Dije Aboki convicted Dawaki in her judgement on Monday and ordered him to restitute N93,232,500.

Mr Wilson Uwujaren, spokesman for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) disclosed this in a statement.

Dawaki was arraigned alongside two others – Abdullahi Rano and Samuel Obende – who are now deceased on 28 counts of conspiracy and criminal breach of trust.

The three defendants, all former employees of Union Bank Plc, were responsible for receiving, processing, and distributing money to all their bank’s cash centres across Kano, Katsina, and Jigawa States.

They were, however, said to have betrayed the trust of their employers and conspired among themselves to defraud the bank by diverting the funds to their own use.

The convict, alongside his co-defendants, reportedly altered figures to show that they made cash deliveries to designated branches whereas the monies were never delivered.

When they were arraigned on February 26, 2015, Dawaki and his co-defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges, thereby setting the stage for the full trial.

But Dawaki’s co-defendants died and their names were subsequently removed from the charge.

The prosecution called seven witnesses to prove the case against the convict, while the defendant called six witnesses, including himself.

In her judgment, Justice Aboki found Dawaki guilty of seven counts of the charge and convicted him accordingly.

She, however, acquitted him on 21 counts.

The judge convicted the defendant on count one which bordered on conspiracy and counts two, 11, 22, 24, 25, and 26, all of which bordered on criminal breach of trust.

On counts one, 11, 22, 24, 25, and 26, the convict was sentenced to two years imprisonment and a fine of N200,000 on each.

On count two, he was sentenced to five years imprisonment and a fine of N200,000.

Justice Aboki noted that sentence on counts two and 11 were to run consecutively while counts one, 22, 24, 25, and 26 would run concurrently.