On March 23rd 2009 Vanguard wrote this article(below) exposing the ploy of some forces to create problems in the banking industry.
The purpose and intent of the ploy alongside their propagators were described.

Funnily at the period this article was written First bank was allegedly involved in demarketing Intercontinental bank. (There is high level proof and evidence to this). The First Bank MD at the time was Sanusi(Now CBN Governor).

Read the article below. Comparing Vanguard Newspapers findings at the time to the events that have begun to unfold in the industry is indicative of strategic implementation of a specific agenda.

Vanguard predicted 5 banks being targeted. Vanguard predicted creation of confusion in the industry. Vanguard made a couple other predictions which have begun to unfold.
Read excerpts from the article.

Group plots takeover of five top banks       E-mail
Written by Omoh Gabriel & Emeka Mamah   
Monday, 23 March 2009


LAGOS—ANTI-CONSOLIDATION forces have regrouped with the hope of dismantling the structures and forcing a takeover of the top five banks in the country, Vanguard can now reveal.

The grand plan by the group is to cause panic and uncertainty in the industry and make the target banks look unsafe for depositors.

Meantime, indications emerged yesterday that the Federal Government may announce the names of a new Governor of the Central Bank (CBN) and the Auditor-General of the Federation (AGF) in April just a few weeks before the tenure of the incumbents run out.

However, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has expressed concern over what it described as the rapidly deteriorating liquidity situation in the banking industry and tasked the Central Bank (CBN) to make public information on causes of the development as well as the scale of the crisis.

Vanguard investigations revealed that the aim of the anti-consolidation forces is to cause loss of public confidence in the banking industry and compel the Federal Government to move in by injecting funds. Further, they ultimately plan to instigate government to take equity holdings in the targeted banks.

Vanguard gathered that the group at work is made up of former bank owners who lost out during the consolidation exercise, a powerful clique in the present government, and some aggrieved persons in three of the six geopolitical zones in the country who felt left out in the consolidation exercise.

Presidency sources disclosed that those who felt left out in the consolidation exercise are up in arms to recoup what they felt they lost during Obasanjo years.

Part of the plans hatched by the group is to ensure that the incumbent Governor of the Central Bank, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, does not get a second term. The plan is also to ensure that whatever gains consolidation recorded are discredited. This, it was learnt, was meant to force the President to act quickly in the matter of appointment of a successor to Soludo as they anticipate that the president’s slow move may scuttle their dreams and cause the renewal of Soludo’s re-appointment for a second term.

The group’s second game plan is to make Nigerian banks look unsafe in the eye of the banking public. Part of the game is to spread rumours that some banks are unsound and are on the verge of collapse. They send out text messages to individuals and account holders passing wrong information on their target banks. At the moment, the group’s target is one of the high-flying new generation banks where they have sent out several messages.

The problem is Nigerians are usually blind to things like these. We always rejoice when 'big' people in the society face one problem or the other. Everyone has forgotten that Ibori who is a convicted felon is Yaradua's right hand man and also one of the debtors to these banks yet nothing has been done to him. They are chasing the bank chiefs and people like Jimoh Ibrahim who's only crime is mismanagement. At least no report has claimed that any of these people converted the money for personal use.

This was the same way saharareporters rightly predicted the 'fall' of Ribadu from his being sent on a course in Kuru to his demotion up to his outright removal were all relayed on the saharareporters website months before it actually happened, yet Nigerians still refused to see it was all a set up.

Like someone said, the people deserve the kind of government they get!

1. Where is the exact link to this article on Vanguard website?

2. Are you saying that the 5 banks were the top banks in Nigeria? If, yes, based on what yardstick?

vanguard has become a crap newspaper that publishes ridiculous rumours

they were the only paper to publish the letteer alleging that 200 illegal immigrants were to be executed in libya
the only one to publish the so called letter from boko haram
now - their expose

they better just be brand as a softsell/tabloid for unserious buyers

oyb:

vanguard has become a crap newspaper that publishes ridiculous rumours

they were the only paper to publish the letteer alleging that 200 illegal immigrants were to be executed in libya
the only one to publish the so called letter from boko haram
now - their expose

they better just be brand as a softsell/tabloid for unserious buyers

Thisday published it too.

oush

@poster

nigerians have a way with short memory and running away from the truth.

I suggest Vanguard Newspaper just generally becomes a religious tract rather than claiming they're a news media organization.

If they want to print news, they should print news. If they want print predictions, let them become a football pools agency.

So is a more economy-informed BusinessDay:

http://businessdayonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4671:who-saw-the-bank-crisis-coming&catid=123:special-report&Itemid=361

nex abi wetin you call urself remove ur head from the big sand you have buried it eh!!!! abeg make we hear word!

This is the link to the exact article:

[url]http://www.vanguardngr.com/2009/08/25/group-plots-takeover-of-five-top-banks/comment-page-1/#comment-40050
[/url]

I am watching closely to see Sanusi's next move. The guy has lost a lot of credibility already especially with the irregularities in the debtors list.
The legal angles are already taking shape as the courts have ordered the release of the arrested Bank MDs.

Whatever agenda is on the cards would definitely fail this time.