TWO Ecobank directors were yesterday charged with forging registration of a title deed. Wilfred Nyasimi Oroko and Michael Monari, who jetted into the country yesterday morning from Lome in Togo and Kampala, Uganda respectively, denied the charge when they appeared before principal magistrate Lucy Nyambura. The two had been summoned to appear in court following accusations of obtaining registration by false pretence.

The court heard that the two, with others not in court, procured for Akiba Bank (now Ecobank), the registration of replacement of change of title deed to a land belonging to Mohamed Habib without his consent. Monari, who is the bank's managing director in Uganda, and Oroko, the senior group officer in Lome, will remain in custody for two days to allow the police complete investigations. The court heard that the prosecution had not been able to complete their work because the two were out of the country most of the time.

The prosecutor Onesmus Towett asked the court to order the two be remanded at Muthaiga police station. The investigations had been going on since last year but they could not be charged because the two managers went to the High Court seeking to stop their prosecution, but lost the case. The complaint against the managers was lodged by businessman Mohamed Abubakar who asked the police to investigate in connection with an alleged forgery of charge and registration of a title of a Nairobi hotel known as Downtown belonging to his family.

The title had been charged to the bank, formerly known as Akiba Bank after Abubakar's father- Mohamed Habib borrowed a loan of Sh7.5 million from the bank. By the time he died in 2007, he had repaid Sh6.5 million but the bank was still claiming Sh105 million. The hotel was later sold to a third party and Abubakar ordered to pay monthly rent but Abubakar obtained orders to stay at the hotel pending appeal. It is Abubakar contention that the two signed the charge as directors of the bank whereas they were not and that the charge was a clear forgery as Habib died in June 17, 2007 but the charge was signed and executed in December 31, 2008. The two managers will appear in court tomorrow.