Akingbola may spend two weeks in EFCC custody

Written by The Punch Friday, 06 August 2010

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has secured a court order to detain a former Chief Executive Officer of Intercontinental Bank, Dr, Erastus Akingbola, for two weeks, pending the conclusion of his interrogation.

The ex-bank chief had surrendered to the commission on Wednesday less than 24 hours after he arrived in the country through the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, unnoticed by security apparatus.

A source at the EFCC, who craved anonymity because he had no authority to speak to the press, said that the commission secured the order from an Abuja High Court to legalise the detention of the suspect beyond the 48 hours prescribed by law.

It was learnt that the embattled former bank executive might be taken to court straight from EFCC custody to answer a pending 28-count charge.

He is being held on charges relating to money laundering and granting non-performing loans, estimated at about N700bn.

A top official of the EFCC said, “The court granted the order on the strength of the order earlier declaring him wanted. You know he fled the country to evade arraignment in court.

“The order is to detain him for two weeks, but he may not stay that long. We may take him to court before the two weeks expired. Before then we would have concluded his interrogation.

“The questions are voluminous, because the allegations are equally many. We don’t want to rush him and he has been taken his time to respond to the questions. We are doing it at his convenience.”

As soon as information got to close aides of the ex-top banker that he would not be released on Thursday, they were said to have taken some personal effects to him to last him the duration of the detention.

Akingbola had fled the country in August last year, shortly before the Central Bank of Nigeria announced his removal, alongside four other bank CEOs for alleged financial misconduct.

The four, who are already being prosecuted, are: Mrs. Cecelia Ibru (Oceanic bank); Mr. Bartholomew Ebong (Union bank); Mr. Sebastine Adigwe (Afribank); and Mr. Okey Nwosu (Finbank). They were all admitted to bail by the courts.

On August 23, the EFCC had, through a statement, declared Akingbola and Ibru wanted following their decision to spurn the commission’s summons; Ibru later surfaced from hiding to answer the charges against her.

The statement said that Akingbola was wanted in connection with the “fraudulent abuse of credit process, insider trading, capital market manipulation and money laundering running into billions of Naira.”

The statement also said that he was being wanted for offences believed to have led to the “critical situation” of Intercontinental.

It read further, “Apart from failing to honour the commission’s invitation, intensive search for the two executives in the last one week has not been successful. They obviously went into hiding to evade arrest.

“This development has made it imperative for the commission to solicit for useful information from Nigerians who know their whereabouts.

“It is necessary to warn that anybody who harbours the two former bank executives will be treated as an accomplice or accessory to crime.”

But, reacting to the declaration of Akingbola wanted, his Spokesman, Mr. Mark Ogbamosa, had then said that the action negated the principle of rule of law.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Ogun State Chapter of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria, Mr. John Obafemi, was interrogated by the EFCC on Thursday.

He was summoned following a petition by the suspended Chairman of Ijebu East Local Government Area of the state, Mr. Tunde Oladunjoye, alleging that the executive had been shortchanging the 20 LGAs of their statutory allocations.

The petitioner had named Obafemi as the facilitator of the Memorandum of Understanding between the executive and the 20 LG chairmen acceding to the deductions.

Oladunjoye had claimed in the petition that the chairmen rejected their cheques for October allocation, which provoked their alleged harassment by agents of the state.

The embattled ex-chairman requested the EFCC to ask Obafemi “probing questions” to either substantiate or debunk his claims.

He said, “Why are some chairmen being harassed now over the rejection. Why was John Obafemi, ALGON chairman, verbally assaulted and almost beaten by the governor’s henchmen?

“Why has ALGON, the umbrella body of chairmen in Ogun State, not spoken up; why were council chairmen forced to sign that they approve to the new illegal sharing formular at December 2009 Joint Account Allocation Committee meeting.

“Is there any provision in the1999 Constitution or Laws of Ogun State that allows elected chairmen to trade away, compromise or sign away the constitutionally-backed Local Government Area revenue from the Federation Accounts?”

The Head of Media and Publicity of the EFCC, Mr. Femi Babafemi, confirmed the court order extending the detention of Akingbola for two weeks, as well as the interrogation of Obafemi.

He said, “We have acted within the purview of the law for us to do a thorough job, so Dr. Akingbola is still with us. It is also true that Ogun ALGON chairman is being interrogated as I speak with you (6.30pm).”