Victor Ogiemwonyi, a Lagos stockbroker, and Partnership Securities Limited, his company, have been convicted for allegedly stealing shares worth N953 million and $80,000 belonging to one Mr. Arnold Onyekwere Ekpe, a former managing director of Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI).

Ogiemwonyi was convicted after he was found guilty of two-count charges bordering on stealing, contrary to Section 285(1), (9) (b) and (c) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011 slammed on him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Ekpe, through Messrs Margaret Onyema, his counsel, has sometimes in October 2016 in a petition to the EFCC alleged that he instructed the defendants to sell his 96,077,872 units of Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) shares, which were sold at the rate of N1,296,885,311.02.

But he said out of the proceeds of the sale, the stock broker paid only N300,000,000.00 to him while he dishonestly diverted the balance for personal use.

Following investigations, the defendants were charged with two counts of stealing.

Count one reads:

”Victor Ogiemwonyi and Partnership Securities Limited between the months of June, 2016 and September, 2016 at Lagos within the jurisdiction of this honourable court dishonestly stole the sum of N953, 535,861.57 (Nine Hundred and Fifty Three Million, Five Hundred and Thirty Five Thousand, Eight Hundred and Sixty one Naira Fifty Seven Kobo) being part of the proceeds of sale of 96, 077, 872 Ecobank Transnational Incorporated Shares, property of Mr. Arnold Onyekwere Ekpe”.

Count Two reads:

“Victor Qgiemwonyi and Partnership Securities Limited sometime between June, 2016 and July, 2016 at Lagos within the jurisdiction of this honourable court dishonestly stole the sum of USD$80,000.00 (Eighty Thousand United States of America Dollars) which formed part of the accrued dividends on 96, 077,872 Ecobank Transnational incorporated Shares, property of Mr. Anold Onyekwere Ekpe”.

At trial, the prosecution, led by Ola Sesan, called five witnesses and tendered 67 exhibits, all of which were admitted and marked by the court.

The defence, on its part, called three witnesses, including the first defendant.

Delivering judgment on Wednesday, Justice Modupe Nicole-Clay of the Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos convicted Ogiemwonyi and his company, Partnership Securities Limited, guilty on all counts.

The court sentenced the first convict to pay a fine of N10 million, while the second convict was ordered to pay a fine of N20 million.

Also, the court directed the convicts to pay back the entire money stolen from the petitioner, both in naira and dollars.

Recall that Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, had in 2017 banned Victor Ogiemwonyi, from operating in the capital market for life over alleged unprofessional conduct in the Nigerian capital market.

He was also banned for life from holding directorship position in any public company in Nigeria.

He was also ordered to pay a penalty of N100,000.

SEC said Ogiemwonyi was banned after he was found guilty of breaching Rule 1(iii) of the Code of Conduct for Capital Market Operators and Their Employees as contained in its Rules and Regulations made pursuant to the Investments and Securities Act 2007.

The ban also followed petition by EFCC to SEC accusing Ogiewonyi of misappropriation of about N1.24 billion, $80,000.00, stealing and dishonest conversion of proceeds of share sale belonging to an investor.

It was alleged that he used his company to dupe over 300 investors over N4.8 billion with Arnold Ekpe a former Managing Director of Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, ETI, being one of his victims.

Banks in the country have agreed to reduce fraud response times to under 30 minutes, a move expected to significantly improve recovery outcomes and limit systemic risk, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

This disclosure was made on Wednesday by Philip Ikeazor, deputy governor, Financial System Stability, at the 2026 Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum (NeFF) Technical Kick-Off Session held in Lagos.

Represented by Ibrahim Hassan, Ikeazor said fraud mitigation efforts within the banking industry have continued to evolve in response to increasingly sophisticated threat vectors. While legacy forms of fraud such as ATM card cloning have largely been neutralised, newer risks including online fraud, social engineering, SIM-swap abuse, insider compromise and authorised push payment (APP) scams have emerged as major challenges.

According to him, NeFF has played a pivotal role in coordinating timely and industry-wide responses to these emerging risks. These interventions include the introduction of mandatory two-factor authentication, issuance of industry advisories, sustained public awareness campaigns, the establishment of 24/7 bank fraud desks and, more recently, the development of a Standardised APP Scam Framework.

“Importantly, the industry has agreed to reduce fraud response times to under 30 minutes, a decisive step that materially improves recovery outcomes and limits systemic exposure,” Ikeazor said.

He noted that a major enabler of fraud reduction in Nigeria has been the country’s progress in identity management. The introduction of the Bank Verification Number (BVN), alongside its ongoing integration with the National Identification Number (NIN), has significantly constrained impersonation and synthetic identity fraud.

According to him, enhanced identity verification across banking channels, agent networks and high-risk digital platforms is steadily closing loopholes previously exploited by criminals. He added that this development reinforces the importance of identity infrastructure as a foundational control for payment system integrity, with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) remaining a key partner in strengthening fraud prevention efforts.

“Equally transformative is the industry’s migration to ISO 20022. Beyond compliance, ISO 20022 provides richer, structured transaction data that enhances traceability, analytics and early fraud detection,” Ikeazor said.

He explained that as banks, payment service providers and financial infrastructure operators complete implementation across real-time gross settlement (RTGS) and instant payment systems, data quality and transparency are expected to improve materially. This, he said, would enable faster investigations, better fraud pattern recognition and more effective cross-border cooperation.

“This alignment with global standards positions Nigeria to confront increasingly sophisticated fraud schemes with modern, data-driven tools,” he added.

Ikeazor further noted that over the past decade, Nigeria’s electronic payments ecosystem has recorded substantial progress in resilience, security and public confidence. Despite rapid expansion across ATM, POS, mobile and interbank payment channels, system uptime, operational stability and fraud controls have improved markedly.

He attributed this progress to early regulatory interventions, industry-wide adoption of EMV standards, stronger cybersecurity frameworks, enhanced consumer protection measures and sustained collaboration through NeFF. As a result, he said Nigeria’s payments system now compares favourably with global peers in cyber-fraud management, despite exponential growth in digital transaction volumes.

Looking ahead to 2026, Ikeazor warned that electronic fraud losses have risen sharply in recent years and must be decisively reversed. He stressed the need for the industry to commit to bold and measurable fraud-reduction targets, supported by clear strategic priorities.

These include full exploitation of ISO 20022 data, universal and real-time identity verification, enhanced round-the-clock fraud monitoring and response, structured liability-sharing and consumer reimbursement frameworks, deeper engagement with payment service providers and telecoms operators, as well as rigorous performance measurement through transparent scorecards.

“What gets measured must be improved,” he said.

In her opening remarks, Rakiya O. Yusuf, director, Payments System Supervision Department and Chairman, Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum (NeFF), said that over the past decade, NeFF has provided a trusted platform for regulators and industry stakeholders to jointly strengthen the resilience, security and credibility of Nigeria’s payments system.

Yusuf said sustained collaboration among financial institutions, payment service providers, infrastructure operators, identity management agencies, law enforcement and other partners has delivered meaningful progress in fraud mitigation, even as electronic transactions have expanded rapidly under the cashless policy.

She said key milestones achieved include the migration to EMV chip-and-PIN cards, the introduction of two-factor authentication across electronic channels, enhanced consumer protection measures and the institutionalisation of industry-wide fraud information sharing.

According to her, these interventions led to measurable reductions in fraud losses in earlier years and helped preserve public confidence in digital payments during periods of rapid growth. More recently, she added, improvements in identity management, particularly the rollout of the BVN and its integration with the NIN, have significantly reduced impersonation and the use of false identities for fraud, closing long-standing gaps exploited by criminals across both banking and agent networks.