The EFCC has threatened to declare some 19 bank executives wanted if they fail to report themselves at its offices by the end of today. The executives are mostly from the five banks whose leadership was sacked last week by the Central Bank of Nigeria. They include the sacked Managing Directors of Oceanic Bank, Intercontinental Bank, Afribank, Finbank and Union Bank.
A source said that there were a total of 19 officials on the list, some of which are Managing Directors of subsidiaries of the affected banks and some whose banks are next on the line to be hit.
Some of the names on the list are Ben Nwoji of Afribank Trustees Ltd; Henry Onyemem of Union Trustees Ltd; Felicia Shonobi of Oceanic trustees; Ayodele Thomas of Intercontinental Capital Market Ltd and Alex Duruike of Finbank Securities Ltd. A source said the officials are wanted in connection with investigations into the activities of the management of some banks in country.
The EFCC spokesman, Femi Babafemi said the accused persons were invited yesterday for quizzing but failed to show up. "The chairman has been briefed that they have fled their homes," he said. "But one good step already taken by the commission is that they have been listed, so it is difficult for them to escape out of the country."
According to the source, the EFCC officials have been trailing some of the bank executives since they were sacked and yesterday the chairman sent teams of operatives to go to Lagos and invite them for interaction.
The Central Bank has asked the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to investigate previous transactions by the five banks whose top management were sacked last week.
As a result of this, senior officials from the operations and banking fraud units of the EFCC held a closed meeting with the CBN Monday to look for ways in which the anti-corruption agency could deepen investigations, assist in recovering bad debts, and proceed with prosecution with respect to possible financial crimes.
The CBN governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has expressed determination to prosecute all those involved in the mismanagement of Nigerian banks.
Last Friday, he announced the sack of Managing Directors of Intercontinental Bank, Oceanic Bank, FinBank, Afribank and Union Bank. The officials were quickly replaced by the CBN. Mr. Sanusi also promised that there will be more drastic actions against the bank executives, depending on the direction of the investigations.
The invitation of the EFCC represents an escalation of the case against the bankers. If arrests start taking place over the coming days, it would represent the final humiliation for the bank chiefs, whose power and stature were virtually unrivaled over the past five years as the size of financial institutions relative to the overall economy rose dramatically, and bankers veritually transformed into superstars.
The EFCC had not immediately shown any interest in the banking fiasco. Just last week, the spokesperson of the Commission, Femi Babafemi, had told NEXT that his agency was not involved in the the investigations.
That changed on Monday.
“There are other government agencies like the SEC and NDIC that supervise these issues. It is not impossible that some of these things have been reported to them already” Babafemi had said. “If the NDIC is handling the matter, you cannot expect us to just walk in and push them out and take over the matter. It is not in all cases that you take over the jobs of other agencies. In most cases, when these agencies get stuck, for example, they need technical support, then we can come in.”
Lack of willpower to prosecute
Some lawyers, speaking to NEXT on the new state of affairs, were not as upbeat about the meeting.
John Bayaisea, a senior advocate of the Supreme Court thought it would be hard for the EFCC to prosecute the deposed bank executives. He said although the agency has the power to prosecute them, the political will may be absent.
“The law may even be there, and the law is not supposed to be a respecter of persons, but even if they find under-handling,
I am not confident that the EFCC can really prosecute these executives,” Bayaisea said. “The executives are big people and have high connections.
He said that even though there is a need to prosecute the bankers and particularly those who owe the banks, the current environment is not in favour of a vigorous anti-graft prosecution, particularly of the big players in the country.
“By law, if they are found guilty, there is supposed to be a jail sentence but here, there would be an option of fine like in the case of the former Edo state governor, who paid the money blissfully,” he said. “In more serious countries, some chief executives are languishing in jail. Here, we make sentences so light. We are not serious about what we want to do.” Lagos lawyer, Jiti Ogunye, also expressed doubts about the ability of the EFCC to prosecute anyone in the banking scandal. He also said the crack-down on the banks smacks of politics.
“My view is not sympathetic towards the EFCC,” he said. “The federal government, by their proclamation and the EFCC, are acting opportunistically. The CBN is not an anti-corruption agency and before this belated, though welcome, step being taken by the CBN, the federal government did nothing. The federal government, now politicizing the matter to reap some salutation from the angry public is showmanship.” Mr Ogunye said the EFCC had demonstrated a lack of capacity to prosecute anybody seriously in the past, “especially high angels of blue collar crimes.” He said the CBN should devise other ways to retrieve depositor’s money mismanaged by the fallen bank executives rather than involve the EFCC in it.
“The EFCC is playing drama. What we need is action, not drama,” he said. “They should have acted before the CBN did, because there were tell tale signs.
Acting now is a little late.” He said even if the CBN decided to prosecute, the bankers and their collaborators would only get a maximum of seven years imprisonment.
“All the laws, the Money Laundering Act of the EFCC and ICPC, have a seven-year imprisonment as the most severe punishment,” he said. “Even if they are convicted, they could even get less than that.”
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