A shareholder, Mr. Boniface Okezie, whose suit led to a judgment ordering the Central Bank of Nigeria to release information on the N191bn assets forfeited by Mrs. Cecilia Ibru, wants the CBN governor, Mallam Lamido Sanusi, to be prosecuted for his handling of the information on the stolen assets.

Okezie, the president of Progressive Shareholders Association of Nigeria, made the request in a letter dated October 12, 2012 to the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Mohammed Adoke, SAN.

A Federal High Court, Lagos, delivered the said judgment on October 2, 2012, ordering the apex bank to release the information on the assets forfeited by the convicted Ibru, a former Managing Director of Oceanic Bank Plc, within 72 hours.

Okezie had instituted the suit following CBN’s failure to release the information to him as ealier requested for under the Freedom of Information Act.

The shareholder, who wrote through his counsel, Mr. Chuks Nwachukwu, said with the judgment, “a case of wrongful denial of access to information is therefore firmly established against Mallam Lamido Sanusi, the Governor of CBN”.

He also called on the AGF to order “an immediate full scale investigation” of Sanusi and all persons connected with the assets recovered from the convicted former bank chief to establish what has become of those assets.

He said denying him access to the information by Sanusi before the judgment delivered on October 2, was wrongful, and was therefore liable to be prosecuted.

Nwachuku said, “He is liable to be prosecuted, and upon conviction, to a fine of N500,000 as provided at Sections 7(5) of the Freedom of Information Act.

“This letter is therefore to present you with a formal demand for the criminal preosecution of Mallam Lamido Sanusi in accordance with the law.

“I do believe that the seriousness of the offence is not lost on you.”

CBN’s Director of Communications, Mr. Ugo Okoroafor did not respond to the allegations as at presstime despite his earlier promise to do so.