The Nigerian government Monday arraigned 11 bank directors and three stock brokers before a federal high court in the nation’s economic capital city of Lagos.
The arraignment came two weeks after the bank chiefs were removed by the apex Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for offences including granting of unsecured loans and surpassing their banks’ approval limits in granting loans.
Those arraigned before Justice Dan Abutu included former Managing Directors of Union Bank Bartholomew Ebong; Afribank Sebastian Adigwe; Finbank Okey Nwosu and Oceanic International Bank Cecilia Ibru.
Others were seven non-executive directors of Intercontinental Bank – Raymond Obieri, Hyacinth Enuha, Christopher Adebayo Alabi, Samuel Adegbite, Isiaku Umar, Bayo Dada and Sanni Adams – as well as Henry Oyemem, Niyi Albert Op eodu and stockbroker Peter Ololo.
They were ordered remanded in prison and EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission) till Friday, when their bail applications will be heard.
The CBN moved against the bank officials last month in what it said was aimed at saving them from collapse. It also injected 400 billion naira (US$2.6 billion) into the banks to shore up their capital base.
Following are some of the charges against the bank executives:
AFRIBANK
36 counts against former chief executive Sebastian Adigwe and others now at large including:
– recklessly granting credit facilities worth almost 150 billion naira ($1 billion) between 2008 and 2009 without adequate security,
– failing to keep proper accounts sometime between 2008 and 2009 and classifying commercial papers as contingent liabilities of Afribank,
– failing to take all reasonable steps to ensure the correctness of monthly bank returns to the central bank; and
– conspiring in 2008 with stockbroker Peter Ololo and Falcon Securities Ltd to manipulate by fraudulent means the market price of Afribank shares.
FINBANK
11 counts against former chief executive Okey Nwosu, including:
– failing to take all reasonable steps to ensure the correctness of monthly bank returns to the central bank and
– incorrectly importing the sum of 47.7 billion naira of commercial papers into the Finbank statement of assets and liabilities on or about May 31, 2009
INTERCONTINENTAL
18 counts against various bank directors and former chief executive Erastus Akin gbola, who is still at large and declared wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), including:
– granting of credit facilities worth a total of 40 billion naira to five companies in whom Intercontinental Bank directors were also directors in August 2008,
– failing to take reasonable steps between January and May 2009 to ensure that the balance sheet gave a true and fair reflection of the state of affairs of the bank with regard to non-performing credits totalling 87.6 billion naira,
– granting credit facilities to two companies in October 2006 and March 2007 worth a total of 4.2 billion naira without central bank approval and without proper authorisation from Intercontinental Bank,
– that eight directors received $10,000 each in holiday allowance in November 2008 in contravention of central bank’s code of conduct; and
– failing to take reasonable steps to ensure compliance with minimum capital adequacy and liquidity ratios required by the central bank.
OCEANIC BANK
25 counts against former chief executive Cecilia Ibru and others still at large, including:
– recklessly granting credit facilities worth almost 70 billion naira in 2008 and 2009 without adequate security and approving credits above approval limits,
– failing to take all reasonable steps to ensure the correctness of monthly bank returns to the central bank; and
– granting credit facilities worth 25.1 billion naira to Staff Savings and Investment Trust Fund against the security of Oceanic Bank International Plc shares.
UNION BANK
28 counts against former chief executive Bartholomew Ebong and others still at large, including:
– recklessly granting credit facilities worth more than 80 billion naira between 2007 and 2008 without adequate security,
– failing to take all reasonable steps to ensure the correctness of monthly bank returns to the central bank; and
– conspiring with stockbroker Peter Ololo and Falcon Securities Ltd between 2007 and 2009 to manipulate by fraudulent means the market price of Union Bank shares.