CBN, First Bank INDICTED In Fresh $3.1b Fraud

The Nigeria's bankers' bank popularly known as the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN has been indicted alongside the First Bank Nigeria Plc in a fresh police investigation into the depletion of a $3.7bn account of the Brass/Liquefied Natural Gas Company.

The Brass/Liquefied Natural Gas Account Number 2011104669, which is domiciled in the First Bank of Nigeria, has been depleted to $469.4m, Punch Newspaper detailed in a fresh report this morning.

It was learnt that the police had frozen the balance through a court order while investigations continued into why the money was not remitted to the Treasury Single Account in the Central Bank of Nigeria.

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The probe, being handled by the Special Investigation Panel, headed by Ali Ahmodu, a retired Assistant Inspector-General of Police, uncovered that the balance in the account was not remitted to the TSA in violation of an order by the Federal Government, directing all Ministries, Departments and Agencies to close all deposit accounts in commercial banks and remit same to the CBN.

The SIP was established by the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to investigate unresolved high-profile cases in the country.

A highly-placed source in the police informed our correspondent on Thursday that the SIP had interrogated some FBN and CBN officials over the flagrant disregard for the government directive on TSA.

The source stated that the CBN was indicted by the panel for keeping sealed lips over the violation of the TSA directive by the commercial bank.

He added, “It is a US dollar account domiciled in the First Bank of Nigeria and it was discovered to have a total credit remittance of $3.7bn out of which $3.2bn was withdrawn between August 1, 2008, and August 29, 2016.

“The current balance of $469,427,562.85 has been frozen on the order of the court. Officials of the bank and the CBN have been invited to explain why the balance sum was not transferred to the TSA account and why the apex bank kept sealed lips on such action for over one year. We are also investigating the withdrawal.”

The FBN Corporate Affairs Manager, Babatunde Lasaki, could not be reached for comment as calls to his phone failed to connect.

He had yet to respond to an SMS as of the time of filing this report, Punch Newspaper says

Also, attempts to get the comments of the CBN were not successful as calls made  to the Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, Mr Isaac Okoroafor, did not go through.

Similarly, a text message sent  by Punch Newspaper to his mobile had yet to be responded to as of the time of filing this report.

The CBN had, on August 23, sanctioned nine deposit money banks for hiding over $2.274bn belonging to the NNPC from the TSA.

The errant banks were banned from the foreign exchange market until they remitted all the funds to the TSA.

The offending banks were mandated to move the money to the TSA before they would be considered from further participation in forex trading.

The banks were readmitted into the foreign exchange market on August 31.

7 BIG Mistakes Buhari Made That Led To Nigeria's Economic RECESSION

There have been allegations and counter-allegation between the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP on who is actually responsible for the Nigeria current economic failure.

Obviously outline by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party sympathizer, some seven decisions which were taken by President Muhammadu Buhari have been attributed to the current economic recession being faced by the country

The PDP and its members are speaking out due to the massive poverty in the land.

1) Sudden Implementation of Treasury Single Account (TSA) - 

This policy threw the banking and financial sector into turmoil as huge sums were swept out of banks and dormantly stashed into a preferred safe.

2) Tightening of Foreign Exchange Transactions - 

This policy made it difficult to make foreign exchange, and threw thriving businesses into turmoil which led to massive sacking of workers and manufacturing slowdown.

3) Unguarded Utterances During Foreign Trips - 

The president made several unguarded utterances that gave the impression that Nigeria was headed for the rocks. This made foreign investors hesitant about coming into Nigeria, and encouraged those that were already in Nigeria to speculate and pull out funds.

4) Halting of Important Projects in the Niger Delta - 

Buhari moved to remove majority of the projects that were created to provide tangible benefits to Niger-Deltans. For example, the Maritime University and Pipeline protection projects. Though, some of these projects were condemned by Nigerians, they kept the Niger-Delta at peace and allowed for the maximization of the benefits from petroleum exports.

5) Buhari's Northern Developmental Focus in Nigeria - 

The developmental aim of the president is very much skewed towards Northern Nigeria than every other part. So, he is more like kick starting a new economic focus, while dumping existing economic strengths. For example, he is devoting billions of dollars to search for petroleum in the North when Nigeria does not have functional refineries to ensure adequate availability of petroleum products that are already being produced in the South.

6) Elimination of All the Policies Made by PDP - 

It is on record that even though PDP led governments were corrupt, they made some major strides in diversifying Nigeria's economy. For example, Agricultural export came to life under PDP. Buhari has focused on bedeviling and antagonizing every single policy made by the PDP. In the process, he has thrown out good policies and progress that were made in the past. He is almost starting afresh, and this has rebooted Nigeria and thrown us years backwards.

7) Preference for Violence over Dialogue - 

Buhari prefers to use military force to quell civil strife. This approach ignites more protests and civil disobedience. An economy cannot experience progress in violent conditions. Even Lagos and Ogun axis has experienced an open show of military bombardment, which scares a heck out of investors. The same is true about the production shut ins in the Niger Delta region. Some of these issues can be solved with dialogue and with police actions than full scale military assaults.

Do you agree with these assertions? Please share you opinion on our comment box bellow, we may publish a constructive counter or supportive opinion on our blog

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I Failed In Kogi, Bayelsa, Rivers Poll - 'Honest' Buhari Admits Failure

President Muhammadu Buhari has as admitted his failure in the conduct of elections and rerun polls in Kogi, Bayelsa and Rivers states saying that probably more Nigerians died in the Rivers state rerun poll than in other states. 

He also disclosed that no fewer than 27 states are broke and cannot pay salaries in the country even as he added that the Treasury Single Account, TSA has hit a record N3trillion balance. 

Buhari who also rationalized his frequent foreign trips, saying they are meant to explain his economic and other policies to Nigeria’s partners and neighbours, made the declaration in his address to the leaders of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, at the party’s National Executive Committee, NEC meeting in Abuja yesterday. 

On electoral violence, he described the incidents recorded during the just concluded re-run election in Rivers state as very shameful. “I am afraid I did not succeed in the election in Kogi, Bayelsa, Rivers. I think that more Nigerians are killed or killed themselves in Rivers than in any particular state. At this stage of our political development, to remain brutal is shameful and as a government, I promise we will do something by the next general election,” he said. 

President Buhari said the FG has been able to mop- up more than N3 trillion from payments into the TSA since its inception. He said that TSA savings will be redeployed and distributed to all the critical sectors of the economy as soon as the implementation of the 2016 budget commences. “ When we insist that we have to know what comes in and what goes out for us to make a comprehensive amendment to the economy. If you go and see the Central Bank Governor, he will tell you that in the TSA, we have more than N3 trillion. Where would this money have been if TSA was not in vogue?” 

President Buhari painted a gloomy picture of the economy and stressed that 27 out of 36 states are having serious problems in paying their workers salaries, a situation he attributed to financial indiscretion of the former PDP- led administration. He expressed sadness that successive Peoples Democratic Party governments since 1999, failed to make provisions for times like these considering the volatility of oil prices. 

According to the president his foreign trips were needed to give a personal touch to making a case for the APC-led government’s economic and other policies. “You need to present your economic policies personally to your partners and your neighbours. He said nobody can contradict the fact that what his administration is focussing on at the moments remains very critical to the development and overall well- being of the people. In the area of corruption in the oil sector, President Buhari said the government will soon begin prosecution so that Nigerians will begin to appreciate the position on the malfeasance that has gone on. 

He however, lamented that the administration is not finding it easy securing relevant evidences to prosecute the corruption suspects but that more work is to be done to ensure that those indicted are duly and properly prosecuted. 

“We have tried to make sure that NNPC is reorganized, so that we know how much of our crude is taken, how much it is sold and to which account the money is going. But I tell you that up to the time we came, if anybody told you that he knows how much of crude exchanges hands either on the high sea or reaching their destination and the accounts the money goes into, that person is not telling you the truth. “We are getting the cooperation of countries that has received this crude. 

But we have to be sure of the facts in our hands before we start prosecution so that Nigerians will believe what we have been telling them. Security at the national secretariat of the APC, venue of the NEC meeting was beefed-up. Most of the journalists that were detailed to cover the meeting were denied access into the party secretariat by operatives of Department of State Security, DSS.

Nigerian Pilot