Bank CEOs and their collaborators currently facing trial for bank fraud before Justice Dan Abutu at the Federal High Court in Lagos were denied bail earlier today by the judge.
The former bank officials are back in their various places of detention until September 14th and 16th 2009 when bail applications would be fully considered.
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Bank Chiefs Sent Back To Jail -PM News, Lagos
By Henry Ojelu
The Federal High Court sitting in Lagos this morning deferred ruling on the bail application of the detained bank executives sacked by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on 14 August, 2009.
In its ruling this morning, the judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Dan Abutu, ordered that the bank executives should be detained at the Ikoyi Prisons. Only Cecilia Ibru was sent to EFCC custody.
All of them will remain in custody until 14 and 15 September, when ruling on their bail applications would be delivered.
All the detained bank executives were present during the ruling.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, filed charges against 16 bank chiefs arrested for incurring N2.1 trillion in bad loans for five ailing banks.They were charged last Monday at the Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos.
The bank bosses were arraigned following the completion of investigation into their activities by the EFCC.
The Head of EFCC’s Legal Department, Mr Hassan filed charges against the bank chiefs.
The CBN Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi announced the sack of five banks executives and their management on Friday,14 August, this year. The affected banks are: Oceanic Bank, Intercontinental Bank, Union Bank, Afri Bank and FinBank Plc.
The apex bank also appointed a new management for the five banks, which according to it, were on the brink of collapse.
While some of the debtors disputed the loans credited against their names in the CBN list, a few have been paying back in bits.
The EFCC has so far arrested over 100 debtors of the troubled banks and recovered about N67 billion.
Some of the bank executives including Erastus Akingbola of Intercontinental Bank were said to have escaped overseas. But EFCC chairman, Mrs. Farida Waziri said in Lagos last week at a press briefing that the banks’ management and debtors who escaped overseas will be tracked down by International Police (Interpol).
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