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Lukman Olabiyi
An official of Nigerian Deposits Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Mr. Paul Akali, who is aprosecution witness in the ongoing trial of the ex Intercontinental Bank Plc, Managing Director, Dr. Erastus Akingbola, yesterday, told the Federal High Court, Lagos, that his team did not recommend the taking over of the bank. He stated this while being cross examined by Dr. Akigbola’s counsel, Prof. Taiwo Oshipitan (SAN).
The former Intercontinental Bank Plc boss, is being tried by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on allegation of granting “unsecured credit facilities” worth billions of naira to different companies, among others.
According to EFCC, the alleged offence violates Section 14 (1) of the Money Laundering Act of 2004.
Akali, who was the first prosecution witness to testified in the matter, while being led by the prosecutor, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), had told the court roles played by his team, which led to the removal of Dr. Akingbola as the Bank’s managing director and chief executive officer, as well as taking over of the bank by Access Bank Plc.
At the resumed hearing of the matter Monday, the EFCC Witness, said even though they conducted various examination on the bank, his team never recommended that the bank should be taken over.
When asked if he knew that the taking over was less than one month after the ‘exit meeting’, he answered in affirmative, adding that even though there were financial discrepancy in the bank, but none was directly link to Dr. Akingbola. He also stated that some of the discrepancies in the bank were noticed from monthly returns, but added that its management disagreed with the team on Commercial Paper, which he said were for short time loans for maximum of 270 days, but claimed that he could not remember if any of the Commercial Paper were signed by Dr. Akingbola.
