Nigeria’s AdHoc Committee Wants Ibru and Akingbola’s National Honour Withdrawn

Following the conclusion into the investigation on the “near collapse of the Nigerian capital market”; Nigeria’s House of Representatives’ Ad Hoc Committee, have moved the motion that Cecelia Ibru and  Erastus Akingbola -both  former Managing Directors of the defunct Oceanic Bank International Plc and Intercontinental Bank Plc- be relieved of their national honours.

The suggestion to strip both the former directors of their honours was part of the recommendations made in the Adhoc committee report on the investigation.The report was submitted by the Adhoc committee chairman, Tukur El-Sudi.

Ibru had been awarded national honours as Member of the Federal Republic (MFR) and Officer of the Federal Republic (OFR), while Akingbola was conferred with an OFR for services to banking and the country.

Both former bank directors where sacked by Nigeria apex financial institution, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in 2009 for fund misappropriation in their banks after a joint audit with the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC). The audit conducted discovered that both managers along with six other Bank Directors had impaired their banks’ capital.

Of the accused bank managers, only Ibru and Akingbola were given national honors.

While Ibru has been convicted for her crime after pleading guilty to the financial crime, Akingbola’s case is still in court.

According to This Day, the committee advised that all former bank executives, who are recipients of national honours and are currently being prosecuted for crimes and unethical practices, which led to the collapse of their banks, be stripped of the honours.

Meanwhile, as part of the report submitted, the committee asserted that N8 billion was misplaced during the recapitalisation of Union Bank Plc through a public offer. It concluded that investors’ funds were fraudulently diverted after the offer. The group recommended that past board and management of the bank, the CEO of the issuing house to the offer, the present members of the board and management including the managing director of the bank, "be investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission with a view to establishing the facts and recovering the missing funds."

The group also posits in its report that the nationalisation of three banks and their subsequent change of names to Mainstreet Bank Limited, Keystone Bank Limited and Enterprise Bank Limited, was in violation of the AMCON Act, NDIC Act and Section 44 of the 1999 Constitution.

“The process of transfer (of ownership) was fraught with potential forgery, unethical practices, abuse of office and various unacceptable bad corporate governance precedents.”

The committee recommended that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) should investigate the Managing Director of NDIC, Mr. Umaru Ibrahim; Managing Director of AMCON, Mr. Mustafa Chike-Obi; as well as the Governor of the CBN, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, to establish their complicity in the deal while the transaction is reviewed.