First Bank Plc has sacked over 100 employees over the N40 billion fraud perpetrated by a manager of the bank.
They were relieved of their jobs in July 2024 on account of the fraud.
The Bank did not only sack the affected staff but also froze their accounts.
The manager who is currently at large, used his authorisation to approve chargebacks to accounts he controlled.
According to TechCabal, about 120 employees, including full-time and contract staff of First Bank’s large operations department, were given termination letters in July. The Head of Transactions at the time was also sacked.
The employees were accused of laxity in carrying out their duties and were told they should have spotted the fraud earlier. First Bank’s management team believed it was impossible for a fraud of that scale and timeline to have been executed without the knowledge of his superiors.
It would be recalled that the said manager who was the final line of authorisation on his team, carried on his scheme unnoticed for two years.
When the incident was discovered in March, the bank tried to keep the matter under wraps, suspending several operations team members indefinitely. However, First Bank became more aggressive after the fraud became public.
Several employees were questioned by the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) and detained at the Lion’s Building for at least six hours, one person with direct knowledge of the incident.