Intercontinental Bank: CBN, NDIC used imperfect report to remove Akingbola – EFCC’s witness

An examiner with the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Paul Akali, Friday told Justice Ayokunle Faji of a Federal High Court in Lagos that the report used by both the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the NDIC to sack the Chief Executive Officer of the defunct Intercontinental Bank Plc, Dr. Erastus Akingbola, were imperfect.
Akali, who was a member of the NDIC team that investigated the bank over alleged regulatory infractions and granting of loans without adequate securities in 2009, made the disclosure while testifying in the on-going trial of Akingbola over alleged N179 billion fraud.
The witness while being cross-examined by Akingbola’s lawyer, Prof. Taiwo Osipitan (SAN), added that as at the time Intercontinental Bank was taken over by the CBN and NDIC, it was not a failed or failing bank.
“Our report is not perfect, our report cannot be error free, if our report achieved 75 percent, we’re good. But we tried as humanly possible to minimise errors,” he said.
The witness also confirmed to the court that criminal prosecution of Akingbola was not part of the 12 recommendations in his team’s special examination report.
Responding to a question as to whether a copy of the report was given to Akingbola or if he came across any document showing that NDIC or CBN sent the report to Akingbola, the witness replied that it is not his responsibility to do so.
Akali, who had at the last hearing of the matter told the court that his team did not recommend Akingbola’s removal as Intercontinental Bank’s CEO, however, told the court Friday that the decision to remove Akingbola and subsequent takeover of the bank may not solely be based on his team’s report.
He said: “Our report is not only what the CBN and NDIC relied on to make their decision. They usually also use other sources to arrive at their decisions.
“They could use an offsite report, CBN discount window, bank’s supervision report and others, but I don’t know if offsite report was used in this case.”
When confronted with a copy of his team’s report which has been admitted by the court, to explain the meaning of ‘P’ in each column of the document, the witness said the ‘P’ means ‘performing’, indicating that loans allegedly taken from the bank by Akingbola are still performing as at time of its takeover.