Zenith Bank Sacked My Manager for Testifying in the NIMASA Trial – Witness Tells Court

Zenith Bank Sacked My Manager for Testifying in the NIMASA Trial – Witness Tells Court

Brenda Ihekoromadu, an employee of Zenith Bank, on Monday claimed that her superior, Rita Ifeadi, was fired by the bank for appearing as a witness in the ongoing trial of a former Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Patrick Akpobolokemi.

According to The Punch, Ifeadi, a manager at the Bar Beach branch of the bank appeared as prosecution witness on March 3, 2016, before Justice Ibrahim Buba of a Federal High Court in Lagos.

Ihekoromadu, a subordinate to Ifeadi, told the court that Ifeadi was sacked after appearing in court as a witness in another fraud trial involving Akpobolokemi before Justice Raliat Adebiyi of a Lagos State High Court in Igbosere.

In this case Akpobolokemi and six others were charged for an alleged N7454.7 m fraud. She made the disclosure during her cross examination by the defence counsel, Lanre Olayinka.

Olayinka had, during the proceedings, confronted Ihekoromadu with some documents which the court had earlier admitted as exhibits. The lawyer reminded her that Ifeadi had earlier given evidence on the documents before Justice Buba.

“You are aware that she (Ifeadi) gave evidence for the EFCC before the Federal High Court?” Olayinka asked.

“I know she was in court,” Ihekoromadu.

“You know she was sacked the day after she gave evidence for the EFCC; she was dismissed for forgery as published on your (Zenith Bank) website?” Olayinka asked.

“I know she has been dismissed. I am not aware of what date,” Ihekoromadu said.

Ifeadi had, in her testimony before Justice Buba at the Federal High Court on March 3, narrated how some accounts were opened in her branch of Zenith Bank in the name of NIMASA’s contractors but operated by the employees of the agency.

She had narrated in court how she met one of the defendants, Capt. Ezekiel Agaba, who was an Executive Director at NIMASA, asking him whether the agency needed to open any account.

She said one of the accounts she was asked to open was a corporate account opened in the name of Aroward Consulting Services to which Philip Enuesike and Ima Udo were signatories.

She, however, said she had never set eyes on the signatories, adding that the cheque book for the account was received by Agaba’s aide, Ekene Nwakuche, who she claimed came several times to withdraw N3m.