Justice Akin Oladimeji of the Osun State High Court, Ile-Ife, has remanded three former bankers with Skye Bank at the Ile-Ife prison for failure to exercise due diligence, forgery and conspiracy to commit fraud involving a sum of N16.9 million.

The accused persons – Foluso Opayinka, Ebenezer Adeyemi and Esan Okunola – all former employees of the Ila-Orangun branch of the bank, were charged by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Tuesday for their involvement in the scam.

While Opayinka was arraigned on a three count charge, Ebenezer Adeyemi and Esan Okunola were arraigned on one count each.

They were said to have fraudulently transferred the sum of N16.9 million from the account of a customer, Global Link Consolidated Services Limited, into twenty( 20) different accounts without the authority and consent of the account holder.

Investigations carried out by the EFCC showed that Opayinka, a marketing support staff in the bank, initiated the scam, and was aided by Adeyemi, a customer care officer and Okunola, the manager of the branch where the transactions took place.

The beneficiaries of the money transfers did not sign any paper because Adeyemi allegedly used fake transaction reference numbers and the manager assented to it.

When the charges were read to them, they all pleaded not guilty.

In view of their plea, prosecuting counsel, Zainab Ettu informed the court that she was ready for trial and asked for the remand of all the accused persons in prison custody.

However, counsel to the third accused person, Abiodun Olaide, prayed the court to admit his client to bail, while counsels to the first and second accused persons, Dotun Olaniyan, and Debola Adeyemi respectively, aligned their submissions with Olaide’s prayers and urged the court to be liberal on its bail conditions.

Justice Oladimeji, after listening to their submissions, adjourned the matter till May 30, 2014 for ruling.