Erastus Akingbola Petitions
AGF : Fraudulent Take-Over of
Intercontinental Bank Plc By
Dr. Bukola Saraki, Malam
Lamido Sanusi & Mahmoud Lai
Alabi
September 29, 2010 - 21:23 —
siteadmin
caption:
Erastus Akingbola
By Erastus Akingbola
The Honourable Attorney-
General & Minister Of
Justice Attorney-General ’s
Chambers Federal Ministry Of
Justice, Abuja.
Dear Sir: 1. About two and a
half years ago, Dr. Bukola
Saraki requested that we
merge Societe Generale with
Intercontinental Bank (IB) Plc.
We conducted a due diligence
exercise and noticed N30bn
negative capital – so the board
of IB Plc turned it down. Dr.
Saraki was very unhappy.
2. When time came for the
renewal of Gov. Soludo ’s
appointment as CBN Governor,
Dr. Saraki blocked it with late
President Yar ’Adua and brought
him Lamido Sanusi. Being my
customer, Dr. Saraki confirmed
this personally to me.
3. Lamido Sanusi was appointed
CBN Gov. on 4th June, 2009,
and on the 18th June, - after
just two weeks in office – he
sent CBN examiners to five
banks including IB Plc. This was
quite unusual, as the CBN had
just completed a
comprehensive examination
of IB Plc as part of normal
protocol. The result of this was
good.
4. The new examination
finished in mid-July, and we
were expecting their report.
Suddenly, they returned
claiming that several accounts,
which they had verified and
agreed with us as
“ performing”, were now
reclassified “non-performing”.
5. Despite these manipulations,
IB Plc ’s ratios were alright.
Unusually, the CBN examiners
returned on four separate visits
to reclassify even more
accounts as “non-performing”.
These even included what we
regarded as our best accounts.
6. This prompted me to ask
some of the examiners what
was really going on. They
confided that the new Governor
was bent on removing certain
bank CEOs, and wanted to show
that IB Plc was too exposed to
bad loans. They said he formed
a team in CBN reporting to him
directly. Each completed
examination report was turned
down if it was not damning
enough and they were ordered
to go back until they achieved
certain ratios.
7. One of the examiners
showed me a report on IB Plc,
which was favourable. This has
been rejected by the CBN
Governor, as it did not justify or
warrant my removal.
8. Quite disturbed by this
development, I decided to
speak to Dr. Bukola Saraki, since
he recommended Malam
Lamido Sanusi ’s appointment.
He told me that the CBN
Governor was unhappy with
myself and Mrs. Ibru (of
Oceanic Bank) because
according to him, we had
contributed N6bn to the Senate
to block Lamido
Sanusi’s confirmation as CBN
Governor. I refuted this
allegation telling Dr. Saraki that
my religion would never allow
me to do such a thing, as no
human can undo what God has
ordered in Heaven.
9. I immediately booked an
appointment to see Lamido
Sanusi in the CBN and
questioned him regarding the
N6bn Senate bribery allegation.
He said he had put that behind
him, as “not all king makers in
council will support the choice of
a new Emir ”. I once again
reiterated my innocence, based
on my religion, that the God I
serve will never permit me to
try to block someone
else ’s good fortune.
10. Later, I mentioned to Alhaji
Aliko Dangote the strange
repeated CBN examinations
and the allegation by Lamido
Sanusi. He promised to speak to
him and ask him about the
matter.
11. Surprisingly, Alhaji Dangote
returned to say Lamido Sanusi
revealed that he was told of
the alleged bribe by Dr. Saraki,
and that I even lobbied him to
be the CBN Governor.
12. Apparently, it was Dr.
Bukola Saraki inciting Sanusi
against me, as a way of
removing me and taking over
IB Plc.
13. It has now become evident
that both Dr. Saraki & Malam
Sanusi used the opportunity of
the worldwide financial crisis of
2008- 2009 to jump into certain
banking institutions and take
them over. The crisis had been
acknowledged and was being
well managed by Professor
Chukwuma Soludo, the former
CBN Governor.
The ENTIRE industry was
affected, as others worldwide.
The Nigerian economy was hit
by four economic
catastrophe namely:
a. The oil price drop from $147
per barrel to $30. All oil
importers refused to sell in a
hurry at this new low price,
so banks had to give them time
for the price to improve.
b. The worldwide stock market
collapsed and this led all foreign
investors in the Nigerian stock
exchange to hurriedly sell their
shares. This further depreciated
the Nigerian stock exchange
index, also having an adverse
effect on the banking industry.
c. The CBN, in response to
crashing oil price, devalued
the Naira by 40%. This meant
importers with unsettled
bills had to source more Naira
to buy Dollar, and thus, put
a strain on bank customers and
the loan portfolio of the banks.
d. The sudden devaluation of
the Naira by 40% caused
a panic among overseas banks
that had dollar placements with
Nigerian banks. They
immediately gave notice
and withdrew their funds. IB Plc
lost $1.2bn in this way.
Rather than the new CBN
Governor to perform the role of
‘ lender of last resort’, he used
the crisis to take over banks for
his mentor.
All these banks had prominent
Nigerians waiting to buy them
at “knock-down” or give-away”
prices. However, the media
altered the equation.
14. On the 14th of August 2009,
without any discussion, Malam
Sanusi issued me a letter of
removal as CEO of IB Plc. He
also removed all executive
directors of the bank with
armed police men.
15. The letter (copy attached),
said that based on the
examination he ordered on the
18th June, 2009, it is in the
public interest for the CBN to
intervene by taking over the
bank.
16. Till today, no report of the
examination has been made
available to me, the
management, or the Board of
the bank. We had
no opportunity to learn how the
CBN came to its decision, nor
were given an opportunity to
respond to the examination
report, as is the usual process.
17. My removal by Malam
Sanusi was done in flagrant
disregard of the legal provisions
regarding the removal of bank
directors (i.e. Section 35 of the
Banks and Other Financial
Institutions Act, Cap. B4 Laws of
the Federation, 2004) as there
was no lawful
special examination ordered
into the affairs of
Intercontinental Bank Plc, as
required by law. Since no order
for special examination of
the bank ’s affairs was signed
by Malam Sanusi, as required of
him by the law of this country,
his order for my removal is,
improper and unlawful.
18. The current CBN
examination of May 2010, now
says there is a N95bn loan
over-provision, which means IB
Plc was deliberately marked
down previously.
19. Two lorry loads of police
were sent to IB Plc to remove
me. It was like a bad movie, a
big surprise that a person can
be driven away from a
business he had started and
nurtured for over 21 years
in one hour. And without any
opportunity to contest it.
20. I was surprised that the
next morning (Saturday), all
the papers carried personal
interviews with Malam Sanusi,
in which he accused all the CEOs
of various misdeeds. This
showed that it was pre-planned
and well-rehearsed.
21. On the evening of 19th
August, I received a call that
Malam Sanusi under the powers
that the late President had
delegated to him, had ordered
the EFCC, the Police and the SSS
to arrest me. I also learned that
two lorry loads of personnel
were en route. I hurriedly left
the house, though I could not
believe that all this
had transpired in the last 72
hours.
22. I then recalled a
professional disagreement with
Malam Sanusi while he was CEO
of First Bank. Back then, I had
discovered that his staff
members were de-marketing
IB Plc and I wrote to
him concerning this. .
23. My immediate conclusion
was that Dr. Saraki and Malam
Sanusi wanted to take over IB
Plc by fraudulent means, and
that if I went into their custody,
it could result in my death, in
order to silence any opposition
to their plans.
24. Mr. Mahmoud Lai Alabi was
appointed by the CBN as the
new CEO of IB Plc. Mr. Alabi is an
employee of Dr. Saraki as
chairman of Songa Farms and
several development funds in
the state. On resuming, his first
task was to write off Dr. Saraki ’s
loans to the tune of N8.115bn
(Papers & letters attached). He
also wrote off loans totaling
N32bn to friends of Dr. Saraki
and Malam Sanusi.
All this, in a bank that they
were meant to be rescuing. All
these written-off loans had
been classified as “good”
and “performing” by the CBN
examiners, and had been
secured with properties in Ikoyi
(Lagos), Victoria Island (Lagos),
and Abuja. The
CBN examination report of May
2010 complained about
this massive loan or “cash gift”
to Dr. Saraki. Next, he recruited
former Societe Generale staff as
Executive Directors and loan
managers (for example, Mr.
Gbenga Alade). Mr. Alabi
proceeded to sack the entire
senior management of IB
Plc and replaced them with
former Societe Generale staff. It
is clear, from these actions, that
I was removed to smoothen
the takeover of IB Plc for Dr.
Saraki.
25. As at the time the
shareholders ’ appointed
management was ousted by
Malam Lamido Sanusi, IB Plc
was not owing the CBN one
kobo on the discount window.
Also, IB Plc had Inter-
Bank takings of N73 Billion.
However, as at today under the
CBN ’s appointed management,
IB Plc is now owing the CBN
N100 Billion and owing other
Banks N300 Billion, making a
total deficit of N400 Billion after
the purported intervention by
the CBN.
26. It is rather curious that:
a. All the banks are yet to
receive any examination
report from the CBN to show
areas of deficiencies.
b. The CEO and entire senior
management were
removed without the Board or
shareholders being informed.
c. Without any criminal charges
or reports, the CEOs
were arrested and locked up –
to prevent them from
speaking to the media.
d. It was after locking them up
that the EFCC started
searching for possible offences
(in my case, it took 4 months
of searching for any offence to
pin on me).
e. Mr. Alabi, the new CEO of
Intercontinental Bank Plc, is an
employee of Dr. Saraki
(chairman of Songa Farms
in Kwara). In fact, Dr. Saraki is
running IB Plc by proxy.
f. Within two months of his
appointment, Mr. Alabi
wrote off N7bn of Dr. Saraki’s
loans – the companies are
Linkers, Dicetrade, Skyview
Properties, and Joy Petroleum.
g. As the appointment of each
senior management of IB Plc
was being terminated, Mr. Alabi
was recruiting and replacing
them with former Societe
Generale staff, in order to
complete the take-over. For
instance, the Executive Director
of risk management brought
into IB Plc (Mr. Gbenga Alade) is
a former Societe Generale staff
member.
h. Dr. Saraki has now used his
political power to take over IB
Plc after his failed peaceful
merger attempts.
i. Malam Sanusi claims to have
injected N100bn, (which is less
that 10% of the IB Plc ’s value),
and as such now owns it 100%.
This is a bank with a balance
sheet of N1.6 trillion; 330
branches; 2 foreign subsidiaries;
10 well-established subsidiaries;
12,000 members of staff; and
paidup capital of N230 billion.
Where is the justice?
j. When Malam Sanusi initially
injected N100bn into IB Plc, he
wrote to the Board that it was a
seven-year loan
(copy attached). Why is he now
trying desperately to sell
the bank within a year of the
loan?
27. I am appealing to the
Attorney General and Minister
of Justice to institute an
independent investigation into
the “so-called” banking reform
of Malam Sanusi and the
fraudulent N32 billion
loan write-off.
28. I am also appealing to this
government which believes in
the rule of law to reverse the
fraudulent take-over of
Intercontinental
Bank Plc and return it to its
Board, management and
shareholders.
29. All the allegations against
the banks ’ CEOs should be
independently investigated by
the Attorney General ’s office for
fairness.
30. Even with the deliberate
damage being done to the
banks and their stock prices on
a daily basis, if we are given six
to nine months, the banks will
be restructured to the normal,
favourable and fair positions.
signed
ERASTUS B. O. AKINGBOLA