Yar’Adua has approved the Central Bank's take-over of three more banks, Presidency sources have told Saharareporters. The move will follow the takeover of five banks in August, and the firing of their chief executives: Erastus Akingbola (Intercontinental Bank); Okey Nwosu (Finbank); Sebastian Adigwe (Afribank); Mrs Cecelia Ibru (Oceanic Bank); and Bartholomew Ebong (Union Bank).
The three to be banks set to follow in the gale of the bank reforms being instituted by the Central Bank governor, Lamido Sanusi, are Equatorial Trust Bank (ETB), BankPHB and Spring Bank. The announcement of their fate is expected shortly, if efforts being made by the banks to thwart that development also fail.
Central bank examiners recently concluded examination of 14 more banks and have recommended that the management of the three banks be taken over while their CEOs are prosecuted for mismanagement.
Saharareporters sources said the Attorney General of the Federation, Michael Aondoakaa, has already received some N2.5 billion bribe from the powerful CEOs and owners of the affected banks to stop the planned announcement and prevent the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from arresting and prosecuting the CEOS likely to be indicted as soon as the banks are taken over via the CBN pronouncement.
Also named in the efforts to thwart the take over of the three banks is Yar’Adua’s Chief Economic Adviser, Tanimu Yakubu Kurfi, who has appealed to his boss not to approve the drastic measures because his brother’s bank, BankPHB is involved in the mess.
Some sources claim, however, that Tanimu is merely playing mind games with Yar’Adua, as Tanimu is fingered in part ownership of the bank. He is believed to have borrowed a lot of money from some of the affected banks to buy shares and might have lost up to N800 million in the bank crisis.
Two other banks, whose names were not immediately available, are also said to be in serious crisis, but may not suffer any immediate take over. The CBN had used three criteria for measuring the health of Nigerian banks in its latest bank examinations and audits, namely: Capital adequacy, Liquidity ratio and corporate governance.
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