{"id":21190,"date":"2024-12-16T23:16:32","date_gmt":"2024-12-16T23:16:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/?p=21190"},"modified":"2024-12-16T23:18:45","modified_gmt":"2024-12-16T23:18:45","slug":"efcc-re-arraigns-ex-bank-phb-md-francis-atuche-two-others-for-forgery-in-lagos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/?p=21190","title":{"rendered":"EFCC Re-Arraigns Ex-Bank PHB MD, Francis Atuche, Two Others For Forgery in Lagos"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">The Lagos Zonal Directorate of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.efcc.gov.ng\/efcc\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Economic and Financial Crimes Commission<\/a>, EFCC, on Monday, December 16, 2024, re-arraigned a former Managing Director of the defunct Bank PHB Plc, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.efcc.gov.ng\/efcc\/news-and-information\/news-release\/10236-n25-7bn-fraud-supreme-court-upholds-six-year-conviction-of-ex-bank-phb-md-atuche\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Francis Atuche<\/a>, on a nine-count charge bordering on conspiracy to commit felony and forgery before Justice O. O. Abike-Fadipe of the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Atuche alongside Nnosiri Joachim, a.k.a Ifeanyi, and Uguru Onyike had first been<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>arraigned before Justice Habeeb Abiru, who has now been upgraded as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The case consequently started de novo before Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo, who has now been transferred to another division of the Lagos High Court.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">One of the counts reads: \u201cThat you, Mr. Francis Atuche, Nnosiri Joachim (a.k.a Ifeanyi) and Uguru Onyike, on or about 4th day of March, 2013, in Lagos, with the Ikeja Judicial Division, with intent to defraud conspired to commit felony to wit: forgery of a document titled: &#8220;BOARD RESOLUTION&#8221; of Future View Securities Limited dated 17th December, 2007.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Another count reads: \u201c Nnosiri Joachim (a.k.a Ifeanyi), on or about 4th day of March, 2013 in Lagos, within the Ikeja Judicial Division, with intent to defraud, knowingly and fraudulently used a false document titled \u201cBoard Resolution of Trajek Nigeria Limited\u201d dated 15th December 2007, which you purported to have been duly signed by one Elizabeth Ebi (a Director of Trajek Nigeria Limited) to Keystone Bank Limited as genuine.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The defendants pleaded \u201cnot guilty\u201d to the charges when they were read to them. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In view of this, the prosecution counsel, Fanen Anum, told the court that the matter<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>was starting de novo and also prayed the court for a trial date.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Counsel to the first defendant, Anthony Ejere, however, prayed the court to allow his client, who has been convicted over another matter, to continue to enjoin the earlier bail granted him by the court.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Also, counsel to second and third<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>defendants, Clement Onwuenwunor, SAN, prayed the court to allow<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>his clients to continue to enjoy the earlier bail granted them by Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In a short ruling, Justice Fadipe upheld the prayers of the defence counsel that the defendants<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>be allowed to continue on the bail granted them by Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The Judge adjourned the case till May 6, 7, 8, 13, 20 and 27, 2025 for commencement of trial.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Atuche\u2019s<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>fresh issues with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.efcc.gov.ng\/efcc\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">EFCC<\/a> started when he recently contacted Nnosiri, an<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Office Assistant with Keystone Bank\u2019s Central Sharing Services Centre in Lagos, to deliver some alleged forged documents to the Bank&#8217;s corporate headquarters in Lagos for onward presentation in court as exhibits in an on-going case between him and the Commission before Justice Lateefat Okunnu. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The forged documents that had been missing since October 2009 are the Board\u2019s resolutions of Future View Securities Limited, Extra Oil Limited and Trajek Nigeria Limited. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Visit www.efcc.gov.ng for more stories<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Lagos Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Monday, December 16, 2024, re-arraigned a former Managing Director of the defunct Bank PHB Plc, Francis Atuche, on a nine-count charge bordering on conspiracy to commit felony and forgery before Justice O. O. Abike-Fadipe of the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21191,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[75,9666,5769,9667],"class_list":["post-21190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-efcc","tag-ex-bank-phb-md","tag-forgery","tag-francis-atuche"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21190"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21190"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21195,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21190\/revisions\/21195"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}