Former Nigerian banker jailed for fraud, to refund $1.2b

A Nigeria court has jailed a former Chief Executive Officer of one of the country’s troubled banks for six months for fraud and ordered her to refund $1.2 billion in cash and assets to the state.

The banker, Cecilia Ibru, who was the former CEO of the Oceanic Bank pleaded guilty to three of 25 counts of fraud and mismanagement, the BBC reports.

The sentence according to the report is sending shock waves across Nigeria’s financial world.

Last year, Nigeria’s Central Bank governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi sacked CEOs of eight banks over the country’s banks’ mounting debt crisis. The central bank subsequently injected 400 billion naira ($2.6b) into these troubled banks.

Eurasia Group, a New York-based research company, said in 2009 that banks in Nigeria, may have as much as $10 billion of toxic assets.

Mrs Ibru’s sentence was the result of a settlement agreement, Judge Dan Abutu told the court in Lagos on Friday.

Her three sentences are for six months each, but will run concurrently. This means she will spend only six months in jail, the BBC’s Lagos correspondent said.

Mrs. Ibru’s sentence is seen by many as positive for Nigeria. The country is now seen as able to deal with graft.

Despite being Africa’s second largest oil producer, majority of Nigeria’s over 150 million population live below the poverty line, because much of the oil money is believed to be stolen by politicians and their allies in business.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi