A former managing director of the Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM), Roberts Orya, has been convicted and sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for his role in a N2.4bn fraud involving alleged fraudulent loan disbursements.
The Federal Capital Territory High Court in Abuja delivered the judgment on Thursday, 5 February 2026, with Justice F E Messiri finding Orya guilty on 49 counts bordering on obtaining money by false pretences, forgery and advance fee fraud.
Orya, who was arraigned in 2021 by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), had pleaded not guilty to the charges, triggering a full trial in which the prosecution called seven witnesses.
In his ruling, Messiri held that the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt, describing the offences as serious breaches of trust, especially given NEXIM’s strategic role in Nigeria’s economic development.
The judge sentenced Orya to 10 years’ imprisonment on each of the 49 counts – a combined total of 490 years – but ordered that the sentences should run concurrently.
Prosecutors told the court that the former bank chief abused his office to induce NEXIM to release large sums of money to companies under false pretences. The prosecution counsel, Samuel Ugwuebulam, said the transactions were structured to siphon public funds through front companies.
One of the charges alleged that Orya fraudulently induced the bank to pay N488m to Treasuremix Construction Limited in September 2011, under the pretence that Luxurium Leisure Services Limited had applied for and was the beneficiary of the loan – a claim the prosecution said was false.
A second count accused him of committing a similar offence in February 2013, involving the disbursement of N630m under the same alleged false representation.
The court accepted the prosecution’s argument that the loan arrangements were fraudulent and that the supposed beneficiary companies were used as conduits to divert bank funds.
“The prosecution has proved its case beyond reasonable doubt,” Messiri ruled before convicting Orya on all counts.
Orya served as managing director of NEXIM between 2009 and 2016. He was first appointed by the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in August 2009 and later reappointed by former President Goodluck Jonathan in August 2014.
The conviction is one of the most prominent fraud cases involving a former chief executive of a federal financial institution in recent years, underscoring renewed pressure on Nigeria’s anti-corruption agencies to secure convictions against senior public officials.
The EFCC said the judgment reaffirmed its commitment to ensuring public officers are held accountable and that economic crimes are punished in accordance with the law.
