FCMB is a leading financial institution in Nigeria has received a big shock of the year as one of its staff has been thrown to prison for fraud and embezzlement.

Justice S. Odili at the Anambra State High Court in Onitsha, Anambra State, sentenced Mr Nwachukwu Placidus, a bank manager at First City Monument Bank FCMB, Onitsha Anambra State to 121 years in prison for embezzling N112 million from a customer’s fixed deposit account.

The Honorable justices delivered the verdict resulting in the conviction and sentencing of a former manager at the First City Monument Bank’s branch in Onitsha, who has now been sentenced to a total of 121 years in prison for misappropriating fixed deposit funds totaling N112,100,000 from a customer for personal use. This is tantamount to a breach of trust by the former manager which has attracted a huge jail term.

The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman has pledged to flush out persons in public and private organisations working with fake certificates.

Mamman made this known while speaking in Abuja on Friday when he received the report of an Inter-Ministerial Investigative Committee on Degree Certificate Milling from the Chairman of the committee , Prof. Jubrila Amin.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) report that the minister of education on Jan. 9, inaugurated an Inter-Ministerial Committee to examine the veracity of allegations of degrees racketeering within both foreign and local private universities.

The committee was mandated to review the role of any MDAs or its officials in facilitation of the recognition and procurement of fake certificates in question.

Mamman, who expressed sadness over what has been uncovered during the investigations, said that the ministry would work with relevant agencies to sanitise the education sector and rid it of any fake tendencies.

“We can’t afford to have the integrity of our education soar by some few persons.

“It is possible that some are carrying fake certificates in public and private organisations who needs to be flushed out. This report is a product of a thorough investigation.

“It is sad that someone who should come out from a Nigerian institution with a 2:1 or 2:2 is now parading an international certificate of first class.

“The ministry is determined to take steps to sanitise the system,” he said.

He pledged to take decisive role to ensure standards were enshrined in the system saying that ‘we can’t afford to let down our country when it comes to standards’.

Presenting the report, Chairman of the Inter-ministerial Committee, Amin, decried the horrible standards of education in those schools saying that many of those schools awarding degree certificates were an eye saw.

Amin said the problems at hand required speedy intervention, recommending that all agencies in the sector must digitise/automate their system.

He said that automating the entire education system was a way to go in such a way that you could sit in your office and monitor what is happening in all tertiary institutions.

According to him, in the course of our investigation, we realise that the present programme of accreditation and evaluation of results is inadequate.

He called for more universities in the country, saying that more universities to train PhD holders would help a lot rather than Nigerians going outside in search of certificates while ending up getting fake certificates.

He, therefore, urged the National Universities Commission (NUC) to pay more attention to institutions offering part time or sandwich programmes so we don’t have a repeat of 2017 saga of centres offering unaccredited courses.

“People go and get fake degrees and we have been to those countries and we know what a proper degree looks like, we know what the fake one looks like.

“We have given it to the ministry to scrutinise anyone presenting a certificate from those institutions and anything else is fake.

” It is up to the ministry to find out people with fake certificates and deal with them in whatever way they derm fit,” he said

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has submitted additional proof of evidence against the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele.

During the court hearing on Friday, Emefiele’s counsel, Olalekan Ojo requested an adjournment to review the new evidence before continuing the cross-examination of John Ikechukwu Ayoh, the second prosecution witness.

Ojo accused the EFCC counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, of engaging in “trial by ambush” and not being diligent in their prosecution.

He told the court that he just received the additional proof of evidence from the EFCC.

He said the new proof of evidence was filed on Thursday, saying he needed to study the additional proof of evidence to cross-examine the prosecution witness.

He told the court, “My lord, there is a need to adjourn this case. We were just served these huge documents by the EFCC in court.

“The prosecution keeps dumping documents on us at every sitting. This is trial by ambush.”

Sharing the same sentiment, the counsel to the second defendant, Adeyinka Kotoye, also said he was served the additional proof of evidence five minutes after arriving in court.

In his defence, Oyedepo argued that they provided documents from a former aide to Emefiele in preparation for his testimony, saying it did not affect the ongoing cross-examination.

He added that it was unfair to describe the service of processes by the prosecution as “ambush by trial”.

Oyedepo emphasised that the additional evidence submitted were documents obtained from the phone of a former aide to Emefiele, John Adetona, who is set to testify as a witness.

He also clarified that these documents were provided in advance for Adetona’s future testimony and that he was not scheduled to appear in court on the present or upcoming hearing on May 9.

“The witness (Adetona) whose device the documents were printed from has not given evidence before the court,” Oyedepo said.

“In preparation for his testimony which is not coming up today or May 9, the prosecution rather waiting for the defence to formally demand the hard copies the prosecution team printed the documents out.

“How does that amount to prosecutorial unfairness?”

Oyedepo, however, requested that the court instruct the defence counsels to conclude their cross-examination of the second prosecution witness.

He clarified that the introduction of new documents does not hinder or impact the ongoing cross-examination of this witness.

However, Emefiele’s lawyer disagreed, stating that he needed time to review the new documents as they may contain valuable information for use during cross-examination.

In his ruling, the presiding judge, Rahman Oshodi, agreed with the defendant’s counsel.

Oshodi then adjourned the matter to May 9.

Emefiele and his co-defendant, Henry Omoile, are currently being tried in a Lagos high court on a 26-count charge.

Both the former CBN governor and Omoile pleaded not guilty to all the charges against them.