Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, has revealed that the managing directors of the sacked banks spent billions of naira belonging to customers on private jets and building mansions. Sanusi stated that the CBN discovered that most of the loans given out by the distressed banks’ chief executives were spurious, adding that it was such funds they diverted into buying private jets and building mansions for themselves.
He made these revelations while speaking during a Hausa service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) programme monitored in Kaduna.
“They borrowed money belonging to the people and built houses, bought private jets and cruised around the world.
“The people should know that it was their money these people are using, maybe this might prevent such misuse of public fund in the future and sanitise the country,” the CBN governor disclosed.
He said that the names of the debtors were submitted to the management of the affected banks, who in turn met with the EFCC.He added that some of the debtors asked for extension of time to repay their loans and were given such opportunity whereas there were others who, after they achieved what they wanted to achieve with the loan, bluntly refused to pay back.
He added: “There are those loans again that were full of deceit; it was actually the MDs that gave themselves the loans and established companies with the money in their names or those of their cronies.
The authorities are really behind such bank officials to get people’s money.”Sanusi disclosed further that a special examination conducted by officials of CBN and NDIC had shown that the affected banks were on the path of distress.He said that the auditing of the first set of 10 banks had been concluded, out of which five of them had their MDs and management sacked by the apex bank.
The auditing of the remaining 14 banks, he revealed will be concluded by mid-September.After the completion of the audit of the remaining banks, the results he said, will be submitted to President Umaru Yar’Adua, adding that seven other chief executives of other ailing banks will be sacked and more bank debtors will be guests of the EFCC soon.
He explained that all the seven bank MDs and their debtors who are implicated in the non-performing loans will be arraigned before the courts after thorough investigations by the EFCC.Sanusi refused to criticise his predecessor, Prof. Charles Chukwuma who was said to be enmeshed in the banks loans saga, saying that whatever the former CBN governor did had passed but it was for him to correct the situation as the present holder of the office.“
What we understand from our end is that those five banks had serious problems in Nigeria and had given out more loans than any other. Even if other banks have problems, such problems are not insurmountable,” he reiterated.
The CBN governor said there shall be no sacred cow in the present cleansing of the banking sector, stressing that nobody, no matter how highly placed, will be spared, if found to be guilty of any wrong doing.