SSS Impounds Ovia, Imoukhuede, Other Bank MDs' Passports
Durojaiye, Kingsley Ighomwenghian And Tunde Opeseitan, Lagos


The ongoing shakeup in the banking sector instituted by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Lamido Sanusi, produced additional shockers on Friday with the seizure of the passports of five more bank Managing Directors (MDs) by the State Security Services (SSS)

Saturday Independent (a sister publication) had on Friday exclusively reported the confiscation on Thursday of the passport of Bank PHB Managing Director Francis Atuche, perhaps in connection with the mess the CBN is trying to clear up in the financial sector.

As at press time, no fewer than five more MDs were said to have been invited by the SSS to surrender their passports.

Sources gave the names of the invited others as Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede (Access Bank Plc); Ike Oraekwuotu (Equitorial Trust Bank Plc); Segun Oloketuyi (Wema Bank Plc); Jim Ovia (Zenith Bank Plc) and Akinsola Akinfemiwa (Skye Bank Plc).

When contacted, spokesmen of some of the affected banks denied that their chief executives had their travel documents seized by the SSS.

Kayode Akinyemi of Skye Bank described the report as "baseless and unfounded rumours."

Timi Ejoor of Zenith Bank retorted: "there is nothing like that," just as a source at Access Bank said it is not true.

Meanwhile, stockbroker and Managing Director of Falcons Securities Limited, Peter Ololo on Friday also regained his freedom after meeting the conditions of the bail granted him by the court.

Several other bank executives are still being held, pending when they will fulfil the bail conditions the Federal High Court in Lagos granted them on Monday and Tuesday.

A top official of the SSS said on Thursday that the government is keeping a close watch on the executives of the 14 banks, whose audit report the CBN has completed and plans to release next month.

The Federal Government is said to be worried about the situation with Erastus Akingbola, former Intercontinental MD, who escaped to London after he was sacked on August 14 along with Ibru, Nwosu, Ebong and Adigwe.

CBN Governor, Lamido Sanusi, disclosed in Lagos on Wednesday that the audit has been completed in 11 of the 14 banks.

That of the remaining three (Stanbic Chartered, Stanbic IBTC and Citibank) began on Wednesday, he said.

"Each bank was examined by 10 examiners, five from the CBN and five from the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC). I have not finished looking at the reports," Lamido added.

The 11 banks are Skye, Bank PHB, Ecobank, Zenith, First City Monument, Fidelity, Spring, Access, Wema, Unity and Equitorial Trust.

The first audit led to the sack of the MDs of five banks - Oceanic, Intercontinental, Union, FinBank, and Afribank.

Five other banks - United Bank for Africa (UBA), First Bank, Guaranty Trust, Diamond, and Sterling - were given the all clear.

Saturday Independent reported on September 4 that the CBN had completed its audit of the 14 remaining banks and that 11 scaled the examination while three did not make the grade.

Sources said when the CBN reconciled the assets of the three "failed banks" with their liabilities, they were found to be negative, an indication that they were insolvent.

However, officials of the banks insisted that they are solvent, saying the banks only have systems failure.

Two non-executive directors of Intercontinental Bank, Christopher Adebayo Alabi and Isyaku Umar also met their bail conditions late Friday, thus bringing the number of bank executives out of custody so far to 10.

Former Oceanic Bank, Mrs. Cecilia Ibru regained her freedom on Wednesday after meeting her bail conditions.

Three other former MDs, Barth Ebong (Union), Okey Nwosu (FinBank), and Sebastian Adigwe (Afribank) left the custody of the EFCC on Thursday, as did Raymond Obieri (Intercontinental Bank Chairman), and two Directors of the bank, Samuel Adegbite and Hyacinth Enuha.

It was, however, not certain as at press time whether two other directors of Intercontinental bank, Bayo Dada and Sani Adams, and two directors of Union Bank, Henry Onyemem and Niyi Opeodu had perfected their bail conditions.

All the accused were granted bail in the sum of N100 million each and two sureties each in like sum.

The EFCC is prosecuting the former bank executives on a combined 131 charges, including granting over N500 billions loans without collateral and mismanagement of depositor's funds.

Ruling on the bail applications, Justice Dan Abutu directed that the sureties must be Nigerians resident in either Lagos or Abuja and that the surety must own landed property in Ikoyi, Lekki or Victoria Island areas of Lagos or Maitama, Asokoro or Garki areas of Abuja.

The court held that the surety could also be chairman of board of directors of any company or oil firm, whose asset base is not less that N1 billion and that the asset base must be reflected in the 2008 annual financial report of the company.

The court further directed that the surety could be a serving or former Senator, member of House of Representatives, former or serving Governor or Deputy Governor and Speaker or Deputy Speaker of any state House of Assembly in the country.

The court also prohibited all the accused from travelling out of the country pending the determination of the trial, and directed them to always report to the head office of EFCC every first working day of every month.

Justice Abutu, however, directed the EFCC to verify all the documents to be submitted by the sureties within 48 hours of submission.

While granting the bail, the court held: "There is no conclusive evidence that the accused persons, if released on bail, will escape from or interfere with prosecution witnesses. What is crucial in any condition for bail is that the condition to be imposed must ensure that the accused persons are available for trial.

"They are such conditions that are reasonably necessary that will make the accused persons' presence in court," Abutu ruled.

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Na wao Nigerian banks are has become a useless organization.