Abuja — Two former bank chief executives sacked by the central bank penultimate week have been formally declared wanted over alleged fraud, insider trading and money laundering, after they failed to surrender to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Mrs. Cecilia Ibru of Oceanic Bank and Mr. Erastus Akingbola of Intercontinental Bank are wanted for questioning over their roles in share price manipulation and huge lending that nearly run their banks aground.
"The two former bank executives are wanted in connection with fraudulent abuse of credit process, insider trading, capital market manipulation and money laundering running into billions of naira," spokesman for EFCC Femi Babafemi said in a statement in Abuja yesterday. He said the order to declare them wanted was issued by the commission's chairman Farida Waziri.
Since last Tuesday, the EFCC had been hunting for the two former bank chief executives, following their sack alongside three others by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which said lax governance had left the five banks so weakly capitalised that they posed a risk to the sector.
Ibru is believed to be in the country after security agents reportedly scuttled her plans to travel out last week, but Akingbola fled to the United Kingdom few days after his sack. Three other sacked bank chief executives--Okey Nwosu of Finbank, Sebatin Adigwe of Afribank and Barth Ebong of Union Bank-- and 11 executives of their subsidiaries have been in EFCC detention in Lagos since last Tuesday.
"Apart from failing to honour the commission's invitation, intensive search for the two executives in the last one week has not been successful. They obviously went into hiding to evade arrest," Babafemi said.
"This development has made it imperative for the commission to solicit for useful information from Nigerians who know their whereabouts. In the same vein, it is necessary to warn that anybody who harbours the two former bank executives will be treated as an accomplice or accessory to crime," he added.
Akingbola and Ibru have separately initiated court actions against their sack, demanding N50 billion each in damages. Hearing in Akingbola's case was set for Friday.
A list of debtors released last week by CBN showed that the five troubled banks have a portfolio of non-performing loans totaling over N746 billion, and Mrs. Waziri has constituted five teams of top police investigators to go after defaulters. The deadline for payment given by the anti-graft agency expires tomorrow and so far only N11 billion has been recovered.
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If Iam the Attorney for these two people, I would ask them to surrender to the Authorities immediately as days are gone when one commits crime in Nigeria in some ways and runs to Oversee and be safe.It is a matter of time, these bandits may not hide for too long before they run out of gas.In a nut shell, they simply have no safe heaven.They may find themselves in Britain, U.S. however, they will be watching their backs because Nigerians in these Nations know them and could inform the Authorities of these Countries and they could be arrested on the streets and be sent back to face the law of the land assuming that the Attorney General of Nigeria and his Officials have not been bribed already to help them [Ibru and Akingbola from facing Nigerian justice as Corruption has become the daily bread for Nigeria officials.One would not be surprised to hear that a deal has been reached between A.G.of Nigeria and these financial terrorists.Ibru and Akingbola if you are not guilty why are you hiding or runing.You can run but you can not hide any more.You owe this Nation a debt and time has come for you to pay it by surrending to the Authorities where ever you may be and to answer some questions as to what happened to the Banks you were entrsted to.Do not worry let justice prevail but you may get youreslves good lawyers in your defences thats part- say rule of law. EFCC go get them you have the law on your side and give Nigerians justice they deserve.Enough is Enough.