Nigeria’s EFCC charges 15

Nigeria’s financial crimes agency charged top officials of five banks with multiple counts of offenses, including giving loans without required security, manipulation of stock prices and failing to render accurate reports to regulators.

Among 15 people charged yesterday by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission before Justice Dan Abutu of the Federal High Court in Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos, were former officials of Finbank Plc, Oceanic Bank International Plc, Afribank Nigeria Plc, Union Bank Nigeria Plc and Intercontinental Bank Plc.

Lamido Sanusi, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, fired the chief executive officers of the banks in July, saying they were in a “grave situation” and injected 420 billion naira ($2.7 billion) into the lenders.

Okey Nwosu, former CEO of Finbank and Sebastian Adigwe, who headed Afribank were among those charged. Also charged were Cecilia Ibru, former CEO of Oceanic Bank and Bart Ebong, former head of Union Bank. All the accused pleaded not guilty.

Source: Bloomberg