These are not the best of times for Yemi Adeola led Sterling Bank Plc. as some fraudulent workers of the financial institution have been exposed. We gathered that in November 2014, Sterling Bank Plc. introduced a “Deposit Mobilization Scheme” for its entire staff as an incentive to encourage them to source and mobilize deposits from members of the public, promising to reward the most outstanding staff who sourced the highest amount of deposit above the given target with a brand new Ford SUV and 1% of the total sum realized.
Yemi Adeola, Managing Director of Sterling Bank Plc.
Ex-Sterling Bank staff, Mr. Dennis Ukpabi who chronicled what he termed “The Deposits Mobilization Fraud” in his recently published book “The Whistle Blower,” revealed that four staff at the corporate headquarters of Sterling Bank Plc. namely: Adekanla Desalu, Eguru Nyenke, Janet Akpan and Kojusola Ajao colluded and conspired to defraud the bank by pulling together deposits into an account belonging to one of them, Kojusola Ajao.
He equally disclosed in his book that the four named staff had tracked funds from dormant accounts belonging to existing customers of the bank in Ajao’s name in order to win the prize. Ukpabi had joined Sterling Bank in November 2011 and resigned in protest on April 29, 2016, after which he exposed the fraud by sending several anonymous emails to the bank on the alleged fraud while demanding disciplinary action.
He added that Ms. Ajao was announced by the bank as the winner of the Deposits Mobilization Scheme and on March 10, 2015, and awarded with the sum of N997,000.00 which was about 1% of the total amount mobilized and also given a brand new Ford SUV. Immediately she received the money, she allegedly transferred and shared it among her three other colleagues. Desalu received N269,250.00; Nyenke got N240,000.00 while Akpan received N238,500.00 as her share.
Following several emails sent to different management staff of the bank by the whistle-blower, the bank’s Audit Department was asked to investigate the alleged fraud, upon which the four staff were found culpable, leading to Ajao’s sack and the retrieval of the Ford Jeep from her. Although the three others were placed on three-month suspension, Nyenke was promoted immediately after serving her suspension, a development linked to her closeness to the bank’s Executive Director in charge of Operations and Services, Yemi Odubiyi. Upon the discovery that Ukpabi was behind the anonymous emails that exposed the bank fraud, the authorities denied him his due promotion and prevented him from embarking on a Sick Leave for which he duly applied.
The situation eventually led to his resignation and publishing of the “The WhistleBlower.” When the fraud was reported by Secrets Reporters owned by Oghenedoro, who is popularly known as Fejiro Oliver, the affected staff of the bank wrote a petition to the Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of the Force Criminal Investigation Department in Abuja, alleging “threat to life, malicious publication and defamation of character”. However, the Police arrested Ukpabi and Oghenedoro and charged them to court for Cyber Stalking.