Court rules on bail application on bank chiefs today - As CBN may give soft landing to 11 bank chiefs

Justice Dan Abutu of the Federal High Court in Lagos will today rule on the bail applications of some bank executives and others that were arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on the 31st of August over alleged insider abuse and financial crimes running into billions of naira.

Those who will know their fate today include Mrs. Cecilia Ibru, the former Managing Director of Oceanic Bank; the former Managing Director of Afribank Plc, Sebastine Adigwe and Peter Ololo, the Managing Director of Falcon Securities Limited.

Others are the Ex-MD of Union Bank, Bartholomew Ebong and his co-accused, Henry Onyemem and Niyi Albert Opeodu. The court will also rule on the bail applications of Mr. Okey Nwosu, Ex-MD of FinBank Nigeria Plc and the seven Executive Directors of Intercontinental Bank Plc on Tuesday.

At the last adjourned date, the court ordered that Sebastine Adigwe and Peter Ololo, be remanded in prison custody while the rest, including the seven Executive Directors of Intercontinental Bank Plc, were remanded in EFCC custody.

The anti-graft commission opposed the bail applications of all the accused persons. Meanwhile, there are indications that the release of the audit result of 11 banks which the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) promised a fortnight ago may not materialise as the apex bank decided to give the banks a clean bill of health

The apex bank is said to be seriously considering the option of making the affected banks correct any unethical practice noticed in the course of auditing the 11 banks while a list of debtors in the audited banks would be made public.

According to the Nigerian Tribune findings, the apex bank decided to shelve the release of the audit reports to avoid the problems encountered when the audit results of the initial five banks were released.