Erastus Akingbola May Have Returned To Nigeria

Wanted Chief Executive Officer of Intercontinental Bank PLC,

Erastus Akingbola, may have sneaked back into the country and gone underground to avoid arrest by operative of the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).Informed sources told Sunday Sun that the embattled bank chief allegedly returned to the country last Tuesday through the landborders of one of the nation’s neighbouring countries. He was however yet to surrender to the EFCC.Akingbola, the only bank CEO who reportedly left the country in the wake of his sack as the helmsman of IBPlc is the only CEO still at large.Mrs. Cecilia Ibru of Oceanic Bank who initially was also on the run like Akingbola has since surrendered herself to the EFCC after the commission declared her and Akingbola wanted.A reliable source at one of the security agencies said, ‘‘we reliably learnt that Erastus Akingbola sneaked back into Nigeria on Tuesday through one of our porous land borders with a neighbouring country.We have deployed more operatives to keep an eye on him, but what we discovered was that he has not been anywhere near all his known addresses. He has been very smart and he really went underground. His fears are that he would be arrested and detained like his colleagues who were further remanded for another two weeks on Friday.”An EFCC source however expressed confidence that Akingbola’s arrest was only a matter of time. “We are on top of the issue and I can assure you he will be nabbed because our men are already drawing a ring round him and he will soon be in the net.”The source also listed the ‘many sins’ of the runaway CEO to include giving $10,000 travel allowance to non-executive directors of his bank, contrary to the CBN code of corporate governance in Nigeria, which limits remuneration to only sitting allowance for that cadre of directors.The EFCC was also said to have discovered “discrepancies between the value of shares in the bank’s customer file and the valuation records supplied to the CBN.”Akingbola was also said to have listed loans advanced in 2007 against 2009 in a frantic bid to deceive the CBN.Besides, a whopping N20bn, of the N27bn non- performing loan portfolio of the bank was said to have been advanced to the bank directors, while the bank was also said to have massively cooked its books to hoodwink the regulatory authorities.The EFCC source also revealed that the “commission has also discovered that $5 million from the banks coffers was transferred abroad.”Another sin counted against Akingbola was that directors of the bank were also alleged to have being involved in under-the-table deals with the funds of the bank. ‘‘We discovered that they had a habit of releasing funds supposedly to the bank’s subsidiaries only for the money to find its way into the bank accounts of the wives of the directors, and their concubines, and sometimes their own private accounts. These funds were deposited in fixed accounts for some time to yield interest before they return it. So we discovered that they were making profit with the funds of the bank while the bank was not making anything.”The source who insisted that the commission would not be deterred by the barrage of attack directed at her over its determination to stop the shady deals in Nigeria’s financial sector, also disclosed that some of the detained bank chiefs have suddenly turned to God in detention.“Many of those that are Muslims have their trusted aides bring their ‘sahur’ meals to them while those that are not observing the Ramadan are turning to prayer warriors. Cecilia Ibru seems the most serious as she is always seen clutching her bible and anointing oil. She has also been playing hosts to some pastors and prayer warriors who visit her to pray for her.”One of such pastor is said to lead a flourishing church in Ogudu area of Lagos.Meanwhile the travel ban imposed on the bank debtors has increased the pressure on the EFCC Chairman, Mrs Farida Waziri, who may have moved her operations and office to an undisclosed location to avoid the bank debtors. http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/features/newsonthehour/2009/sept/06/newsbreak-06-09-2009-001.htm