Posted by By JAMES OJO,Abuja on
Determined to get to the roots of banks' involved in sharp practices after the consolidation era, Committee on Banking and Currency of the House of Representatives investigating unethical practices in banks and other financial sectors has said that its reports of the findings will not be completed without the submission of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Determined to get to the roots of banks' involved in sharp practices after the consolidation era, Committee on Banking and Currency of the House of Representatives investigating unethical practices in banks and other financial sectors has said that its reports of the findings will not be completed without the submission of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
To this end, chairman of the Committee, Hon Ogbuefi Ozomgbachi said that chairman of EFCC, Mrs Farida Waziri would be appearing before the committee to give oral and written submission on the activities of all banks and financial institutions in the country.
Ozomgbachi declared on Sunday that the EFCC would be helping in shaping the committee's report because of its statutory duty as the watchdog of the financial sector of the economy.
'We can only submit our reports on what the banks are doing behind the cover to the plenary, after the EFCC boss has shed lights on the status of some of the 25 banks that met the re capitalisation deadline and their present status," he said.
He added that the committee was particularly interested in knowing what happened to the N721 million invested by Nigerians in the defunct Assurance Bank, noting that there seems to be conflicting reports from the two Principal officers of the bank, Messrs Chika Mbonu and Mr Leo Stan Eke.
Mbonu was the bank's Managing Director before it went under, while Stan Eke was the chairman of the board.
While appearing before the committee, the two officials gave conflicting accounts of the state of the bank in respect of the return of money paid by unsuspecting investors when the bank failed to meet the capitalization.
Eke told the committee that he was a Non-Executive Chairman of the bank could not be held responsible for the missing N675,522,038.39 million, which the former bank management claimed was invested in Treasury Bills.