FirstBank, which was established in 1894 and is the oldest bank in Nigeria, fired over 100 employees due to an N40 billion fraud.
The employees were laid off in July, four months after it was discovered that Tijani Muiz Adeyinka, a manager in the operations team, had diverted 40 billion over two years.
At least 120 employees received termination letters in July. Notably, the head of transport received his share of the cake.
TechCabal also revealed purported fraud in May, demonstrating how Adeyinka approved chargbacks to accounts he controlled using his authorisation. He continued his plot covertly for two years.
Following the incident’s discovery in March, the bank made an effort to conceal it and temporarily suspended a number of the Operations team members.
However, after the fraud was made public, Firstbank started acting more assertively. The Nigerian Police Force (NPF) interrogated several employees and held them at the Lion’s Building for at least six hours.
According to a person with intimate knowledge of the incident, the employees were not allowed to leave the office without posting bail and having limitations placed on all of their personal accounts save their Firstbank accounts.
Dr. Adesola Adeduntan, the CEO of Firstbank at the time, abruptly left in April, eight months ahead of schedule, less than a month after the fraud was discovered.
