Banker shoots self dead to evade alleged fraud

A 44-year- old banker , Olisa Nwakobi ,has shot himself dead , over an alleged fruad case in the bank. Vanguard reliably gathered that the deceased worked as a marketer in the Jakande, Lekki , Lagos branch of one of the second generation banks. He was alleged to have done an illegal transaction of over three million thousand in connivance with one of the bank staff last Thursday. But the buble burst after a red flag was reportedly raised on the custormer’s account where the amount was withdrawn from. Sources at the bank told Vanguard that the bank’s Operation Group Internal Audit carried out investigation on the illegal trasaction in the process of which it was linked to Nwokobi. Rather than appear before the panel of investigative team, from where he would be handed over to the Police, news reached the office next day that he had shot himself . It was gathered that he committed the act in front of Our Lady Star of the Sea church in Northern Foreshore estate, Lekki. A collague who spoke to Vanguard on condition of annonimity said ” the news came to us as a shock. Olisa had worked here for over 10 years. What actually happened was that he withdrew over 350 Million naira in connivance with the cash officer . They used the money to buy foreign currencies in the name of the bank and in turn sold to bureau de change operators and road side dealers in mint naira notes who ordinarily cant buy from the Central Bank of Nigeria because only banks can buy. What some bankers do is to withdraw money from customers accounts which they would use to buy the foreign currencies and make refunds to the accounts before the end of the day. “But on this day, they were unable to balance the account before the end of the day and a red flag was raised on the transaction to find out where ,when , why ,how and who withdrew such amount. We suspect he committed suicide out of fear or shame that the deal had been exposed. But he should have at least restrained from taking such deadly action and face the legal consequence”. A silver American pistol which he used to shoot himself in the head was found on the spot by policemen. Some residents around the area who expressed shock over the incident said the sound of the gun shot alerted them.A men who gave his name as Nmaduabuchi Eze said ” Nobody saw where he came out from. We only heard the gun shot. Nobody could go near him because we were all afraid. We had to contact the police who later came to the scene.