A new twist has been added to the suspension of the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has a former Group Managing Director of the now defunct Intercontinental Bank Plc, Mr. Erastus Akingbola, who is currently facing corruption charges has petitioned President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, alleging fraudulent acquisition of his bank.
The seven-page letter, dated February 9, 2014, revealed the intrigues and private conversations between Akingbola, billionaire Aliko Dangote, Senator Bukola Saraki and Sanusi before the suspended CBN governor eased the former Intercontinental Bank boss out of the bank.
Read the rest of the news story as reported by Daily Newswatch
The letter, which was obtained from www.thewillnigeria.com, an online news media, alleged that Sanusi, Saraki and Mahmoud Lai Alabi fraudulently took over the now defunct Intercontinental Bank from its founder.
Akingbola, in the letter entitled, ‘Fraudulent take-over of Intercontinental Bank Plc by Dr. Bukola Saraki, Malam Lamido Sanusi and Mahmoud Lai Alabi and fraudulently write off of N40 billion loans,’ stated: “About four and a half years ago, Dr. Bukola Saraki requested that we merge his bank, Societe Generale, with Intercontinental Bank (IB) Plc. We conducted a due diligence exercise and noticed N30 billion negative capital – so the board of IB Plc turned it down. Dr. Saraki was very unhappy.
“When time came for the renewal of Governor 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.
“Lamido Sanusi was appointed CBN Governor 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 the normal protocol. The result of this was very good.
“The new examination ordered by Sanusi finished in mid-July, and we were expecting their report. Suddenly, the examiners returned claiming that several accounts, which they had verified and agreed with us as ‘performing’ were now reclassified ‘non-performing.’
“Despite these manipulations, IB Plc 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.
“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.
“One of the examiners showed me a report on IB Plc, which was favourable. This had been rejected by the CBN Governor, as it did not justify or warrant my removal.
“Quite disturbed by this development, I decided to speak to Dr. Bukola Saraki, since he recommended Mallam 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 N6 billion 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.
Was Akingbola sleeping before now, or he does not have the info before