The former Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Oceanic Bank, Cecilia Ibru turned herself in to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at 2:41pm on Wednesday, four days after she was declared wanted by the commission alongside Erastus Akingbola, former chief executive of Intercontinental Bank.
The two former bank chief executives were dismissed from their jobs on August 14 and declared wanted on charges of fraud, stock manipulation and money laundering.
Dressed in her usual black skirt suit, Mrs Ibru looked tired and upset about the entire situation. She came with her lawyer, Niyi Akintola, supported by almost five associates, who huddled around to console her.
Mrs Ibru had been declared wanted for “failure to honour the commission’s invitation,” said Femi Babafemi, the Commission’s spokeperson.
Apart from failing to honour the Commission’s invitation, intensive search by the EFCC was unsuccessful, according to Mr. Babafemi. The Commission then concluded that Mrs Ibru went into hiding.
Dramatically, she came out of hiding yesterday.
Where was Cecilia Ibru?
One of the issues that came up was where she had been. However, her lawyer, Mr. Akintola, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, who came with her client, said Mrs Ibru went to the EFCC office from her hospital bed. She was seen being supported by her physicians.
“She came right from her hospital bed, even with her doctors and she is here,” Mr. Akintola said. “Nobody, apart from the court of law, can declare someone wanted. The court had made that clear; no organisation has the right to declare anybody wanted or order for the detention of any citizen. It is only the court that can do that. The bailiff is there. Well, she is still being interrogated. We don’t know, but that is the order of the court.
“Forget declaration, they don’t have such power to detain her,” her lawyer said. Immediately after a brief meeting with the chairman of the EFCC, Farida Waziri, Mrs Ibru, in company with her physicians and EFCC officials were driven out of the Awolowo Road office in a Toyota Land Cruiser, Lagos plate number, BY400FKJ to the EFCC detention facility on Victoria Island.
In his reaction to whether Mrs Ibru will be released on Wednesday, Mr. Babafemi told NEXT that she was being held for interrogation and that the outcome of the interrogation would determine what the next action would be.
The bank debtors’ arrest
The EFCC had yesterday ordered the arrest of all bank debtors who failed to meet a seven-day ultimatum it gave them to refund the loans they obtained from the affected banks.
According to Mr. Babafemi, about fifty people were to be apprehended by the officials deployed across the country. He said the commission was still waiting for the full report to determine the number of those who had been arrested.
Meanwhile, counsel to the other 15 bank executives already in custody had already started approaching the Commission’s Lagos office with petitions and request for the release of their clients.
Wole Olanipekun, counsel to Okey Nwosu and Sebastian Adigwe, former chief executives of FinBank and AfriBank respectively, on Wednesday, submitted a letter to Mrs Waziri requesting for the release of his clients.
The letter, which was signed by Mr Olanipekun and Anthony Idigbe, requested that the Commission should release the duo on bail, based on the ruling of a Lagos high court . The counsel stated that Mr Nwosu had already been granted bail on stringent conditions, but was still being held.
The court order submitted to the EFCC, requested that the applicant should be granted leave to exercise their fundamental human rights to personal liberty and human dignity.


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