An Ikeja Special Offences and Domestic Violence Court has sentenced a former Lagos State Director of Education, Olawale Faleti, to two years and five months’ imprisonment for stealing N48.9m belonging to Access Bank Plc.
Faleti, 64, was convicted on five counts of theft after a full trial before Justice Rahman Oshodi, following charges filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
In his judgment on Monday, Justice Oshodi held that the offences were not accidental but calculated, describing the acts as “deliberate and sustained”. The court noted that the convict persistently withdrew funds without authorisation and failed to show genuine remorse for his actions.
“Financial institutions remain the backbone of the economy, and public confidence in them must be protected,” the judge said. “Anyone who attempts to defraud banks must expect stiff consequences.”
Although the court acknowledged that Faleti was a first-time offender, it ruled that a non-custodial sentence would undermine the gravity of the offence. The judge, however, applied a 20 per cent reduction on the maximum statutory sentence of three years, taking into account the partial restitution already made.
Faleti was handed concurrent sentences of two years and five months on each of the five counts. The jail term is to take effect from January 5, 2026.
The court further ordered that Faleti’s biometric details be captured in the Lagos State Judiciary offenders’ registry. He was also directed to repay the outstanding sum of N45.9m to Access Bank, after deducting the N3m earlier refunded. The bank was instructed to formally notify the court upon full recovery of the funds.
Earlier, counsel to the EFCC, Ahmed Dambuwa, told the court that Faleti exploited unauthorised access to an Access Bank credit card to fraudulently convert the funds. He explained that although the card was designed to allow withdrawals of a minimum of N43,000 per transaction, a system glitch during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 enabled the convict to withdraw about N48m.
The prosecution detailed that Faleti converted N12.6m between July 2 and July 10, 2020, and another N6.9m between May 22 and July 1, 2020, among other sums, all belonging to Access Bank.
The offences were found to be contrary to Section 287(1)(a) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.
