An Edo State High Court sitting in Benin City has sentenced Ojo Eghosa Kingsley to one year in prison for stealing over N1.5 billion mistakenly credited to his bank account.
Kingsley was convicted on Monday, January 19, 2026, following his arraignment by the Benin Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission before Justice W. I. Aziegbemhin.
The EFCC told the court that Kingsley, a customer of First Bank Plc, fraudulently took possession of funds wrongly paid into his account and converted the money to personal use.
The charge read in part: “That you OJO EGHOSA KINGSLEY (M) sometime between June, 2025 to November, 2025 within the jurisdiction of this honourable Court did steal the aggregate sum of N1,507,502,182.24 … property of First Bank Plc by fraudulently converting the said sum to your own use, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 387(1) of the Criminal Code Law of Edo State, 2022 and punishable under Section 394 of the same Law.”
Kingsley pleaded guilty when the charge was read, prompting the prosecution counsel, M. S. Dahiru, to urge the court to convict and sentence him in line with the law. Defence counsel appealed for leniency, telling the court that the defendant had shown remorse.
In his ruling, Justice Aziegbemhin found Kingsley guilty and sentenced him to one year imprisonment with an option of a N5 million fine. The court also ordered him to pay N272,252,193.59 to First Bank Plc as outstanding restitution from the N1.5 billion fraud.
Investigations by the EFCC led to the recovery of N802.42 million from several bank accounts linked to the convict, his mother and sister. The funds were handed over to the bank by the Acting Zonal Director of the Benin Zonal Directorate, Deputy Commander of the EFCC, Sa’ad Hanafi Sa’ad, on January 12, 2026. The bank also recovered over N300 million through transfer reversal.
Beyond the sentence and restitution order, Kingsley submitted a written undertaking to maintain good conduct in the future.
