Court slaps three year jail term on ex-Finbank MD over N18bn theft -

The Lagos State High Court in Ikeja on Tuesday convicted and jailed a former Managing Director of the defunct Finbank Plc, Okey Nwosu, for stealing N18bn belonging to the bank.

Nwosu was convicted alongside three directors of the bank – Dayo Famoroti, Danjuma Ocholi, and Agnes Ebubedike.

Nwosu and Famoroti bagged three-year jail terms while Ocholi was sentenced to 12 months in prison. Ebubedike got six months of community service.

Justice Lateefat Okunnu, who handed down the verdict, also ordered Nwosu and Famoroti to pay back the stolen N18bn in restitution.

The convicts had been arraigned before Justice Okunnu since 2013.

‌Not long after being arraigned, they went before the Court of Appeal to challenge the validity of the charges, leading to the quashing of the charges by the appellate court on November 21, 2013.

Displeased with the decision of the Court of Appeal, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission headed for the Supreme Court, which restored the charges against the defendants and ordered them to return to the high court for their trial.
In her judgment on Tuesday, Justice Okunnu held that the EFCC proved the charges against the convicts beyond a reasonable doubt.

Hope Moses-Ashike

Hope Moses-Ashike is an Associate Editor, Banking and Finance, with more than a decade of experience reporting on Nigeria’s financial system and broader economy. She closely tracks market movements, monetary policy decisions, company disclosures, regulatory actions, economic indicators, and global developments, and interprets what they mean for businesses, investors, policymakers, and households. Her reporting helps readers understand complex issues such as inflation trends, foreign exchange market dynamics, interest rate decisions, bank performance, and investment risks. She also covers major international events and periodically travels to Washington, D.C., to report on the World Bank/IMF Spring and Annual Meetings. Her dedication to financial journalism has earned her multiple recognitions and invitations to high-level professional development programmes. She is an alumna of the International Visitors Leadership Programme (IVLP) in the United States and holds an Advanced Financial Journalism Certificate from the Press Association Training in London, UK. Her other notable achievements include completing the Lagos Business School CMC Programme, the Bloomberg Media Africa Initiative Programme, and a Master Class in Journalism at Rhodes University in South Africa.