20110505
reuters

LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria's anti-corruption agency has re-arrested four former bank chief executives who were sacked for mismanagement by the central bank during a $4 billion bailout in 2009, a spokesman said on Wednesday.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) re-arrested former Intercontinental Bank chief Erastus Akingbola, former Afribank boss Sebastian Adigwe, ex-Union Bank chief Bartholomew Ebong and former Finbank head Okey Nwosu.

"The re-arrest has to do with fresh allegations ... It is based on fresh evidence from further investigations in the course of their trial," EFCC spokesman Femi Babafemi said.

The four men were previously charged in a federal high court with money laundering and other fraudulent acts but would now face supplementary charges in a state high court, he said.

The central bank injected $4 billion into nine lenders in 2009, saying reckless lending and inadequate risk management had left them so weakly capitalised they posed a risk to the entire banking system in sub-Saharan Africa's number two economy.

High profile corruption cases in Nigeria, particularly against politicians, often drag on without resolution and analysts are watching to see whether cases against senior private sector figures will meet a similar fate.