By Ayodele Aminu and Davidson Iriekpen, 09.14.2009

The former Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Intercontinental Bank Plc, Mr. Erastus Akingbola, is not likely to return to the country until he is formally charged to court, but he has reported himself to UK authorities after being declared wanted in Nigeria.
A statement issued on his behalf by his Media Assistant, Suleiman Adebajo, in Lagos, yesterday said: “Akingbola wishes to make clear – in light of escalating press speculation – that he is most emphatically not evading arrest by the law enforcement agencies in Nigeria or ‘on the run’.”
Akingbola, who the statement addressed as the Group Chief Executive, and a Director of Intercontinental Bank Plc, President of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of Adekunle Ajasin University, Ondo State, Nigeria and the Second Vice-President of Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE), said he is “not guilty of any wrongdoing but appears targeted for persecution and for character desmirchment”.
The statement reads: “He is currently in the UK. Our client believes that the prime objective of detaining all those arrested is to prevent them from presenting their side of the story.
“All persons should be presumed innocent until proved guilty by a court of law. As soon as it was alleged that he was evading arrest, Dr Akingbola notified the UK authorities of his whereabouts and provided full contact details through his legal representatives. Dr Akingbola strenuously denies all allegations of wrongdoing or improper conduct and has challenged the legal validity of his removal from office as Group Chief Executive of Intercontinental Bank Plc by way of judicial review which will come up at the Lagos Judicial Division of the Federal High Court on 14th September 2009.
“The proceedings relating to the bail application by the four other bank Chief Executive Officers and other non executive directors of Intercontinental Bank Plc have also been adjourned to the same date.
“All further comments on this matter will await the outcome of the legal suit in order not to prejudice the outcome of the suit.”
According to one of his associates, Akingbola believes he is the main target of the sack of five bank chiefs by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Akingbola had travelled to the UK a few days before the sack, after holding a meeting with the staff and informing them of the impending CBN action.
On August 14, the CBN had sacked the senior management teams of five banks -Afribank, Finbank, Intercontinental Bank, Oceanic International Bank and Union Bank – and injected N420 billion, saying lax governance had left them dangerously undercapitalised.
Already, Akingbola has challenged the legal validity of his removal and the case comes up today at the Federal High Court in Lagos where his colleagues will also have their day between today and tomorrow.
Akingbola and the incumbent Governor of the CBN, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, had had some disagreements over de-marketing when the latter was the CEO of First Bank of Nigeria Plc.
The former Intercontinental Bank boss had alleged that First Bank was de-marketing Intercontinental Bank and even placed an advertorial to that effect in some newspapers but did not mention First Bank or the name of its CEO.
The advert referred to “one of the old generation banks whose CEO had an ambition to become the Governor of the CBN”.
De-marketing is a term used to describe competitors trying to pull down one another.
This development, according to the statement from Adebajo, explained why it was only Intercontinental Bank that had all its directors in detention.
He said: “How do you explain the fact that directors whose loans are performing are being locked up today? Even those who don’t have one naira loan in the bank are being held in detention.
“Is it not curious that in our democracy you can accuse people without one shred of document to support your allegations and immediately parade them as criminals?”
He said Sanusi never hid his dislike and disdain for Intercontinental Bank Plc and the CEO while he was CEO of First Bank. This, he explained, was why he orchestrated a ferocious de-marketing campaign against Intercontinental as MD of First Bank.
“In the past few days, the whereabouts of Akingbola have been a subject of speculations, and deliberate falsehood. It is clear that he is not in Nigeria contrary to what the false rumours that were circulated would want the public to believe,” he said.
Adebajo said he had also read in the newspapers that Akingbola had been declared wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over alleged misdeeds while in office as the Group CEO of Intercontinental Bank Plc.
He said: “As at the time the news appeared, he (Akingbola) was already outside the country for medical care. He had told me and other close associates that he was eager to come back to the country to squarely pursue his case against his removal from office by the CBN.
“Indeed, against his doctor's advice, he left London for Nigeria on Sunday, August 16, 2009 (two days after CBN's incursion into Intercontinental Bank) just to institute the legal action against CBN.
“However, his condition deteriorated a day after his arrival following his traumatic experience from threats and harassments by security agents and other faceless individuals, thus prompting his immediate return to London for full medical care.
“He has already indicated his intention to be back to the country as soon as his doctors certify him fit to contest the aggression by CBN against his person and the institution he has laboured to build from scratch for 20 years. He will then promptly report to EFCC as soon as he steps into Nigeria, as he has nothing to hide.”
CBN’s spokesman, Abdullahi Muhammed, who described these allegations as personal, said he would not want to comment.
“All these are personal things, which I do not want to comment on. But the facts of the matter are on the ground. Is it not true that those loans were given out? Was the process of investigation not undertaken?
“If the Governor was against him (Akingbola), what of others that do not have anything personal against the Governor,” he asked.

Akingbola should hold tight, God will be with him, and with other people who are unjustly persecuted. Unfortunately, the semi-dictatorship/semi-democratic/semi-tribalistic rule we have in Nigeria locks up bank CEOs without trial, and as a form of torture so that they can surrender their share certificates. Only in Nigeria.

bros, please don't turn this thread to another tribal war.
i beg you.

Sanusi's beans is surely burning big time now.

but it is not yet done

mbulela:

bros, please don't turn this thread to another tribal war.
i beg you.

If not tribal/religious/personal war what is it? Cleaning up the banking industry? You're dreaming.

naijaking1:

If not tribal/religious/personal war what is it? Cleaning up the banking industry? You're dreaming.

Broda, I can see that you are serving all these Sanusimeniacs with the right econs 101 those. Keep it up.

Akingbola like every other Nigerian is innocent until proven guilty.

God will bless Akingbola

Someone needs to stand up to this madness being perpetrated by Sanusi, I wish the remaining bank MDs will go on the offensive and charge CBN for their removal without due process.

McKren:

God will bless Akingbola

Someone needs to stand up to this madness being perpetrated by Sanusi, I wish the remaining bank MDs will go on the offensive and charge CBN for their removal without due process.

I say Amen to that.

Every Nigerian from the-- east, west, and north should stand up for due process. It's Akingbola today, who knows whose turn it would be tomorrow. I thought totalitarianism died with Sani Abacha.

EVEN IF SANUSI TAKES OVER THOSE BANKS, DOES HE HAVE THE BRAIN TO MANAGE THEM. IT'S NOT ONLY ABOUIT TAKING OVER SOMEONE ELSE'S BUSINESS, BUT DOING WHAT THE PERSON HAS BEEN DOING.

AGAIN IT'S VERY UNFAIR WHAT HE'S DOING. BECOS YARADUA NA HIM BROS, MADAM EFCC NA HIM SISTER. BUT I KNOW THEY WILL SURELY FAIL.

SANUSI, I DEY CRAZE INSTEAD OF U DEY CRAZE. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA OLE, ONYE OSHI.

FOOL!