Nigeria has asked the United Kingdom to extradite the former chief of one of the banks rescued in a $4 billion bailout last year so he can face graft charges at home, the anti-corruption police said on Friday.
Erastus Akingbola, former chief executive of Intercontinental Bank, left for Britain after he and the heads of four other banks were sacked by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and charged with graft and money laundering last August. The CBN said reckless lending and lax governance at Intercontinental, Afribank, Finbank, Oceanic Bank and Union Bank had left them so weakly capitalised that they posed a systemic risk to the economy, the second biggest in sub-Saharan Africa.
The CBN injected $2.6 billion into the five lenders in August and rescued four other banks with an additional $1.4 billion one month later in a bailout package.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which declared Akingbola “wanted” last year, said the request for his extradition was made to the British Home Office under the Legal Mutual Assistance Treaty between the two countries. “A letter requesting Akingbola’s arrest was sent to the Home Secretary about a week ago. We are expecting a response from the UK very soon,” EFCC spokesman Femi Babafemi said. Akingbola was charged in absentia last August in Lagos, where half a dozen other directors of Intercontinental also stand accused of granting loans to companies in which they have interests, and failing to ensure the bank met minimum capital adequacy and liquidity requirements.
The court ordered the freezing of Akingbola’s accounts and assets totalling about 346 billion naira and $10 million pending the final determination of the 28-count charge against him, Reuters reports