Reps Passes Bill Stipulating 20 Years Imprisonment For Fraudulent Bank Staff For Second Reading

The House of Representatives has passed for second reading a bill seeking impose 20 years imprisonment on banks staff that are involved in fraudulent activities on customer’s account.

The bill, when it becomes law, would allow for forfeiture of the excess asset or its equivalent in money to the federal government, upon conviction.

The proposed legislation titled, “an Act to Amend the Bank Employee ETC (Declaration of Assets) Act Cap B1 LFN 2011 and for Related Matters 2020,” is sponsored by Hon. Francis Ejiroghene Waive.

Leading the debate on its general principles, Waive said that the bill sought to make the punishment for fraud perpetuated by bank employees more punitive so as to serve as deterrent to other bank staff members.

Waive said: “Be it enacted by the National Assembly, The bank employee etc. (declaration of assets) Act CAP Bl LFN 2011 on this bill referred to as the principal Act is hereby amended as follows: Section 5 of the principal Act is amended in subsection (1) by substituting the existing words with the following words instead thereof “The Chief Executive of every bank shall once in every year, but not later than 7th January submit to the appropriate authority a list of all employees who joined or left the employment of the bank in the immediate preceding 12 months expiring on 31 December of the preceding year.

“Section 7 of the principal Act is amended in subsection (2) by substituting the existing words with the following words instead thereof “Any employee guilty of an offence under subsection (0) or the section shall on conviction be liable to imprisonment for twenty years and shall, in addition, forfeit the excess asset or its equivalent in money to the federal government.”

Contributing in support of the bill, Hon. Yusuf Gagdi (APC, Plateau) said that transactions between bank officials and customers is based on trust and everybody is aware of how some bank officials take that position of trust for granted.

The lawmaker said in different circumstances bank officials suffocate and frustrate their customers for no reason because there is no legal framework that brings those officials to order.

He said: “So, Mr. Speaker, I think we should not even be interested in the 20 years. In my opinion, it should be more. If I keep my money in your bank, fraudulently some bank officials conspired with fraudsters to take money from customers’ accounts and again they are under oath but they disclose information regarding some customers that do not play their own cards.

“This bill that seeks to amend that framework is apt. We should also look at those 20 years in a very clean perspective so that id the Bill is passed, it will serve as a deterrent to bank officials that take that trust between them and customers for granted.”

On his part, Hon. Nkem Abonta (PDP, Abia) was of the view that the bill would reintroduce confidence in banking, adding that in view of the fraud going on, there is need to strengthen banking industry.

According to him, “the Managing Director, frauds like we read, they will tell you one Managing Director is richer than the bank, they will tell you a board member is this and the Board of Directors and owners of the banks are employees of the bank. Some so on. It has given a narrow description of employee of bank. Directors of banks should be interpreted for this purpose to be employees of banks. You see Directors accessing loans without collateral. If you apply this law strictly, directors are employees of the bank, bank owners or anybody who is related to the bank should be deemed to be an employee of the bank.”