Lanre Oyetade and Lanre Adewole - 22.08.2009

More messy details have come out on the five banks whose Managing Directors and Executive Directors were sacked last week.

For now, all the internal and external auditors of the five banks are in trouble and are today going to be guests of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Their offences: They were reputed to have aided the former executives of these five banks to falsify their books and present fake results to the public.

Saturday Tribune gathered on Friday that more dirty secrets were uncovered in these banks this week following visits by operatives of the EFCC who moved from Abuja to Lagos and spent the last three days to examine the books of these banks.

It was during the examination of the banks’ finances that it was discovered by them that both the internal and external auditors of the banks actually helped the executives to cover up many shady deals.

It was gathered that these auditors connived with the chief executives to cook the books and cover their tracks while the frauds were being perpetrated.

Thus, at every financial year, it was gathered that the bank usually prepares two books, one for public consumption where fantastic figures will be reeled out and the other for the insider in the system.

This, the EFCC operatives found out, had been going on for many years, forcing them to question even some officials in the banks.

When contacted on Friday night on the development, spokesman of the EFCC, Mr. Femi Babafemi, confirmed that operatives of the agency actually visited the banks to examine their financial positions and discovered the dirty details.

He also said the chairman of the agency, Mrs. Farida Waziri, had directed that all the internal and external auditors to the five troubled banks should appear at the commission’s office in Lagos unfailingly today.

He also said so far, 11 banks chief are in the EFCC custody and that the whereabouts of both the former Managing Directors of Intercontinental Bank, Mr. Erastus Akingbola, and that of Oceanic International Bank, Mrs. Cecilia Ibru, were unknown.

In another development, the acting Managing Director of Intercontinental Bank Plc, Joseph Olusola Ajewole, has said that the bank is not aware of the whereabouts of the bank’s substantive Managing Director, Mr. Mahmoud Lai Alabi, appointed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to run the affairs of the bank after the removal of Akingbola.

Speaking to newsmen on Friday on the affairs of the bank since Akingbola’s exit, Ajewole said though Alabi had accepted the appointment and had been cleared by security agencies, no one could tell whether he was on sick leave or on vacation.

“And since the bank cannot be left rudderless, I have been appointed in an acting capacity to run the affairs of the bank until Alabi shows up,” he said, adding that his appointment was, therefore, a temporary measure.

He also stated that many of the non-performing debtors of the bank, who had had their names published in national dailies by the Central Bank and who had also been given an ultimatum to pay up their various debts, had been coming up with payment plans while some had made some down payments on their own volition.

He announced that the bank recorded a debt recovery to the tune of N4.8 billion on Friday alone, and that other debtors had made out plans to pay.

“If any of our debtors claims conflicting figures from what was advertised, they should come forward with evidences, but as far as we are concerned, our figures are correct as at when they were extracted,” he said.

However, while fielding questions from newsmen, he revealed that one of the bank’s major debtors, and a former governor of Delta State, James Ibori, was yet to show up and make arrangements as to how he would settle his indebtedness to the bank.

“We believe he has noble intentions and does not in any way intend to cripple the bank and will, therefore, show up to clear his debts soon,” the acting bank boss stated.

The CBN had, in an intervention meant to save some banks from imminent collapse, sacked the managing directors and executive directors of five banks, including Intercontinental Bank Plc, over poor corporate governance in dispensing loans and had further published names of major non-performing debtors, while giving them a seven-day ultimatum to pay their debts or face the wrath of the law.

Ajewole stated that his bank had anticipated some panic among its depositors, adding that the N100 billion bailout fund that had been made available to Intercontinental Bank, out of the total N400 billion the apex bank had provided, had been more than adequate to meet the bank’s obligations as they unfolded.

“Surprisingly, we did not experience the kind of panic withdrawals we had anticipated in any of our branches, and we even had many of our customers making deposits, which showed a high level of loyalty on their part, for which we are very appreciative,” Ajewole stated.

On the question of which investors would eventually take over the bank and on whether foreign investors had shown any interest in the bank, Ajewole stated that it was too early to know which investors would take over the bank and also that it was not too late for foreign investors to still show equity interest.

tribune