First Bank sacked over 100 employees in July 2024, four months after discovering that Tijani Muiz Adeyinka, a manager on the operations team, allegedly diverted ?40 billion over two years. In details first reported by TechCabal, Adeyinka, who is still on the run, used his authorisation to approve chargebacks to accounts he controlled.
Two people with direct knowledge of the matter claimed that at least 120 employees, including full-time and contract staff of First Banks large operations department, were given termination letters in July. The head of transactions at the time was also fired.
Those employees were accused of laxity in carrying out their duties and were told they should have spotted the fraud earlier. First Banks management team believed it was impossible for a fraud of that scale and timeline to have been executed without the knowledge of Adeyinkas superiors.
The CEO said there will be zero tolerance for supervisory negligence, said one First Bank employee who asked not to be named so they could speak freely.
TechCabal first reported the alleged fraud in May, showing how Adeyinka, 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.
