A source at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, who craved anonymity, told SATURDAY PUNCH in Lagos on Thursday that this option had become attractive to those of them who had claimed that their health had deteriorated recently.
The source said that some of the former bank chiefs, who had decided to go through trial, would have “a lot to lose.”
He said, “A few more bank chiefs will go for plea bargaining very soon, especially some of them who claimed to be suffering from some undisclosed health challenges as a result of their cases. But some of them, who have vowed to go through the trial, will have a lot to lose because the volume of evidence against them is as damaging as the one that nailed (Cecilia) Ibru.”
Many of the former financial players were said to have become apprehensive as a result of the unlikely outcome of their cases, which will resume in November.
It was learnt that the embattled bank chiefs had shunned social gatherings, while some of them had gone underground since they were admitted to bail after they were arrested over sundry allegations of financial impropriety.
SATURDAY PUNCH reliably learnt that some of the sacked bank chiefs had learnt how to adapt to their forced status as a result of lack of access to their bank accounts and their assets, which were impounded by the EFCC.
“Some of them are obviously broke (cash strapped) because the EFCC is holding their assets pending the determination of the cases against them. That’s why they are maintaining a low profile and I think this is understandable. They are managing to live their lives with their families from where they are expected to answer whenever the prosecutor beckons,” said a credit management expert, Dr. Chris Onalo.
The bank chiefs were indicted by the EFCC for giving loans without adequate collateral, abuse of office, manipulation of stock prices, and failing to render accurate reports to regulators, among other charges.
The affected former managing directors/chief executive officers, apart from Ibru, are Mr. Erastus Akingbola (Intercontinental Bank); Mr. Bathlomew Ebong (Union Bank); Mr. Sebastian Adigwe (Afribank); Mr. Okey Nwosu (Finbank); Mr. Francis Atuche (Bank PHB); Mr. Charles Ojo (Spring Bank); and Mr. Ike Oraekwotu (Equatorial Trust Bank).
The cases of the bank chiefs, which came to public view in 2009, currently rank between numbers 38 – 44 on the EFCC’s list of 54 high profile cases of fraud as published on the commission’s website on Friday, while Akingbola’s case was listed at 53.
Ibru, whose case had been determined, is however, serving his jail term in a Lagos hospital.
She had pleaded guilty to three of the 25 charges brought against her, but Justice Dan Abutu of the Federal High Court, Lagos, ruled that the convict be taken from the prison to the hospital on the grounds of ill-health.
She was taken to Kirikiri Prisons, Lagos, from the court premises and moved to her prison cell after she was booked as an inmate. The former bank chief executive was thereafter moved to an elite medical centre, Reddington Hospital, Victoria Island, Lagos, where she is being treated for an undisclosed ailment.
She is expected to remain in the hospital until doctors certify her fit to be discharged. The hospital is reportedly charging the embattled former Oceanic Bank CEO between N30, 000 and N90, 000 per night.
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