Falana (SAN) shed light on a string of financial corruption cases in Nigeria, emphasising the critical need for enhanced accountability and transparency in the nation's financial transactions.
The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) is still grappling with the challenge of recovering a staggering N5.4 trillion, which was utilised to settle the debts which were borrowed by approximately 370 companies from commercial banks in the country.
In a State of the Nation statement on Sunday, renowned human rights advocate Femi Falana (SAN) shed light on a string of financial corruption cases in Nigeria, emphasising the critical need for enhanced accountability and transparency in the nation's financial transactions.
The statement is titled, ‘This Is How Our Vampire Elites And The Ruling Class Are Heavily Subsidised By Peripheral Capitalist System While The Masses Are Subjected To Excruciating Economic Pains – Catalogue Of Lootings In Nigeria.’
The statement reads in part: “AMCON is owed N5.4 trillion by the rich. A few years ago, commercial banks were going to collapse due to toxic loans taken by members of the ruling class.
“To prevent the impending economic doom, the Federal Government set up the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) to buy off the loans with trillions of Naira provided by the CBN.
“AMCON has not been able to recover the loans of N5.4 trillion from about 370 corporate bodies.”
The statement also criticised the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for its handling of the sale of four commercial banks: Heritage Bank, Keystone Bank, Union Bank, and Polaris Bank.
After taking over these banks and injecting trillions of Naira to revitalise them, the CBN allegedly sold them off in a non-transparent manner.
A notable example is the sale of Polaris Bank, which received a N1.3 trillion bailout from the CBN but was sold for a mere N50 billion, sparking concerns about the fairness and accountability of the process.
The statement added: “Sometime in 2006, the CBN yanked off $7 billion from the nation’s foreign reserves and fixed it in 14 commercial banks in Nigeria.
The deposit and the accrued interests were not recovered from the banks.
“When I reported the matter to one of the anti-graft agencies, the CBN claimed that it had forgiven forbearance.”
The statement also noted a controversial arrangement where the Ministry of Interior engaged Continental Transfert Technique to collect the Combined Expatriate Residence Permit and Alien Card (CERPAC) fee of $2,000 annually from expatriates in Nigeria.
Alleging the diversion of N40 billion from the Federation Account, Falana said, “A company, Continental Transfert Technique had been hired by the Ministry of Interior to collect the Combined Expatriate Residence Permit and Alien Card (CERPAC) Fee of $2,000 per annum from every expatriate in Nigeria.
“The revenue from 2019 comes to an average of N40 billion per annum.
“This collection which violates Section 162 of the Constitution and provisions of the Immigration Act 2015, is then shared on percentages of Federal Government, 30, Interior Ministry, 7, Immigration Service, and Continental Transfert Technique, 58 per-cent.
“We challenged this illegality at the Federal High Court and won the cases. The court directed the NIS to collect the funds henceforth and remit same to the Federation Account.
“But the contractor and the federal government appealed against the judgment and have continued to share the N40 billion per annum.”
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