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Page last updated at Thursday, May 5, 2011 13:13 PM //
Sanusi Lamido Sanusi – Nigeria Central Bank governor
The crusade to clean Nigeria’s murky financial sector has taken another twist as a dozen former bankers have been arrested and many more are to be arrested soon, according to reports from that country.
The Head of Media and Publicity of Nigeria’s anti-graft organisation, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Femi Babafemi was cited as saying that “We have ain our custody now about a dozen of them. We are still making more arrests.”
The crusade to clean Nigeria’s banking sector was began by the country’s central bank governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi when he took office in 2009.
In 2009 he fired five CEOs of five banks over mounting debts in the sector. He went ahead to inject 400 billion naira, about $2.6 billion at that time into the banks.
The sacked bankers were Erastus Akingbola of Intercontinental Bank Plc, Cecilia Ibru of Oceanic Bank Plc, Bart Ebong of Union Bank Plc, Okey Nwosu of FinBank Plc and Sebastian Adigwe of Afribank Plc. Cecila Ibru was later jailed for six months for her crimes.
Babafemi was reported to have said that one of the accused , Erastus Akingbola, former CEO of Intercontinental Bank, will face a 29-count charge of allegedly stealing more than $303 million.
Akingbola turned himself in last year after returning from Britain. Another ex-bank CEO, Francis Atuche of Bank PHB, will face charges of stealing more than $649m, he added.
By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi
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