It was hard knocks for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi following his decision to sack the chief executives and other top management staff of five Nigerian banks. Citing breach of corporate governance, which, among other issues, exposed the banks to bad loans spiraling to over N1 trillion, the CBN last Friday sacked the chief executives of the Union Bank, Intercontinental Bank, Finbank, Afribank and Oceanic Bank.
Their offence was alleged complicity in their financial institutions' exposure to margin loans and the oil and gas industry. The apex bank also announced their replacements and immediate injection of N400 billion to enhance the performance of the affected banks.
But some major players in the industry are not amused. Two such political gladiators - James Ibori and Lucky Igbinedion - have dismissed the CBN decision and its seemingly hurried implementation as unprofessional; a bad response to a bad situation, which, they said, was capable of eroding the already waning confidence in the banking sector.
It was vacation time; James Ibori was in South Africa, While Lucky Igbinedion was in Boston, to attend the dedication of his grandchild, but then CBN struck, removing Cecilia Ibru from Oceanic bank, which Ibori was heavily Indebted to, and Sebastian Adigwe of Afribank owned by the Igbinedion family. The next day both men cut short their vacation, and briskly returned to Nigeria.
Huhuonline.com has learnt from sources that upon their arrival, they held a secret meeting where it was decided that the actions of Sanusi Lamido amounted to a declaration of war and it was high time to clip the wings of the CBN Governor before he takes flight.
Ibori, who bankrolled President Yar’adua’s election campaign and is a major power broker within the ruling PDP party was quoted as openly expressing disappointment that all the affected MDs: Cecilia Ibru (Oceanic Bank), Erastus Akingbola (Intercontinental Bank Plc), Okey Nwosu (FinBank), Sebastian Adigwe (Afribank) and Barth Ebong (Union Bank) are Christians and Southerners, and that certainly, Sanusi is playing the script of some Northern power brokers who want to discredit Southerners and then pave the way for the take-over of some of the banks by Northern interests. Otherwise, Ibori insisted, why has the Sanusi axe not fallen on Unity Bank?
The same sentiment was expressed by Lucky Igbinedion who was angered at the fact that only Southerners - mostly from the same area were deposed (with the exception of the Union Bank MD): a clever move to justify a future Northern take-over especially now that the North is in charge of all the strategic sectors of the economy: the latest being the appointment of a Northerner also as Comptroller General of Nigeria Customs?
As if that was not enough, the CBN published the names of recalcitrant debtors who owed billions of Naira in non-performing loans to the five banks and warned the “defaulting
customers of the affected banks to pay without further delay their indebtedness, failing which the banks will take all appropriate legal actions to ensure repayment.” (Click on link below to view complete list of defaulting debtors) http://www.cenbank.org/Out/publications/pressRelease/GOV/2009/ADVERTORIAL2.pdf
The exposure of some of their friends and acolytes in what has become a national public naming and shaming campaign so angered Ibori that he felt betrayed by Yar’adua who was said to have directed law enforcement agencies to recover the huge loans owed the five banks , which prompted their take-over by the CBN. The lists include Notore Chemical run by Ibori proxy, Onajite Koloko, who was edged out of Oando by Wale Tinubu, but was rescued by the thieving ex-governor Ibori. Also worth-mentioning was Rahamaniyya Global Resources through which Abdul Rahaman Musa Bashir; President Yar’adua’s son-in-law to be - he has been rumored to marry Aisha, the President’s fourth daughter.
The government also endorsed a probe of the ex-bank bosses to determine if they were culpable. Already, the CBN had passed the audited reports of the affected banks to the EFCC which has already arrested three of the five sacked bank CEOs - Okey Nwosu, Barth Ebong and Sebastian Adigwe, the ex-managing directors of Finbank, Union Bank and Afribank respectively.
Sources told Huhuonline.com that the embattled top bankers were arrested in their Lagos homes and are currently being held at the Awolowo Road, Ikoyi office of the anti-graft agency. Also in EFCC net are eight top executives of Oceanic, Intercontinental and Finbank’s subsidiaries. They include Felicia Sonubi, Oceanic Trustees Ltd, Regina Enyia, Oceanic Securities Ltd, Ayodele Thomas, Intercontinental Capital Market Ltd and Abiodun Taiwo, Intercontinental Finance and Investment Ltd. Others are Abubakar Magaji, Intercontinental Trustees Ltd, Adeboye Adewoyin, Intercontinental Securities Ltd, Alex Duruike, First Inland Securities Ltd and Emmanuel Okonji, First Inland Capital Ltd.
Dr. Erastus Akingbola, the former managing director, Intercontinental Bank, was granted leave by the Federal High Court in Lagos to contest his removal while unconfirmed reports said Cecilia Ibru of Oceanic Bank was stopped by security agents from travelling out of the country.
To avoid any future public embarrassments over this unfolding banking saga, they decided to plant their proxy in the CBN, Chiedu Moghalu. “They realized that getting their own eyes and ears inside the CBN will put them a step ahead of the game and give them ample time to thwart any future move by Sanusi which they perceive to be against their interests,” a CBN source told Huhuonline.com.
The new deputy CBN governor, an Ibori proxy was until recently, distributing his resume to several banks for employment. However, as a favor, Uche Nwora, without the permission of Cecilia Ibru gave him a contract, which Cecilia Ibru cancelled. But according to Chiedu Moghalu, he had spent $2,000 out of pocket expenses, and demanded that Oceanic must refund him his money or face legal redress. That was then; now he is the number two man in charge of all those banks who refused to give him a job during his greatest hours of need
Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the CBN Governor is in need of help. His assertive and courageous intervention in the banking sector through the sack of five Bank Managing Directors/Chief Executive officers has put him on a collision course with propagandists, conspiracy theorists and very powerful interests who have vowed to undo him.
It probably did not occur to Lamido Sanusi that Erastus Akingbola says his bank is built on the foundation of Christ, or that Cecilia Ibru is a prominent member of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG). Or that the sacked CEOs were southerners. Nigeria's banking industry is dominated by Southerners, it is only logical that most of the casualties in this kind of house-cleaning exercise would also come from the South. Whether President Yar’adua will bow to the pressure from special interests groups and disavow his banking Czar remains to be seen.
