A federal judge in Nigeria dismissed charges Monday against a former bank CEO accused in a massive mismanagement scheme that nearly brought down the country’s financial sector.
Erastus Akingbola, formerly the CEO of Intercontinental Bank PLC, walked out of court a free man while Justice Charles Archibong harshly criticized efforts by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to prosecute the financier, the banker’s lawyer Felix O. Fagbohungbe said.
Archibong’s decision to dismiss all the charges against Akingbola came after lawyers for the anti-graft agency asked to resubmit charges against the banker.
Fagbohungbe said the judge told the court the trial had dragged on long enough and accused the commission’s lawyers of incompetence. The judge’s order also asked the nation’s attorney general to disband the prosecution’s team and suggested that ethical violation charges be brought against them.
“They weren’t diligent. They wanted to delay the procedures of the court,” Fagbohungbe told The Associated Press after the hearing Monday in Lagos.
Akingbola had faced charges accusing him of money laundering and falsifying records.
Wilson Uwujaren, a spokesman for the commission, could not be reached for comment Monday night.
The failed prosecution comes amid other high-profile corruption cases falling apart in Nigeria, which analysts consider to have one of the world’s most graft-riddled government. The banking cases were especially horrifying, as analysts say the mismanagement involved nearly brought down all the nation’s banks.
Central bank governor Lamido Sanusi fired Akingbola and four other bank chiefs in August 2009 before he injected $2.55 billion into their troubled banks. Sanusi had been nominated new central bank chief merely two months earlier and faced a spiraling financial crisis that threatened the oil-rich nation’s banking system.
Analysts later said the crisis grew out of lax regulation of financial institutions in Nigeria, leaving ample room for banks to cook their books. A top exporter of crude oil to the U.S., Nigeria is also considered West Africa’s banking epicenter with some of its banks having opened branches outside the country.
Despite stopping a 2009 crash, banking remains on the ropes in Nigeria. The federal government nationalized three major banks in August over insolvency worries. Akingbola’s own Intercontinental Bank was taken over by Access Bank PLC in January.
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