Disclose information on Ibru’s loot, court orders CBN

October 3, 2012 by Ade Adesomoju  

 

Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mallam Lamido Sanusi
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A Federal High Court, Lagos has given the Central Bank of Nigeria 72 hours to declare the whereabouts of about N191bn asset forfeited by the convicted former Managing Director of Oceanic Bank Plc (now Ecobank Plc), Mrs. Cecilia Ibru.

Justice Mohammed Idris  gave the order in a judgment on Tuesday.

The judgment followed a suit instituted by the President of Progressive Shareholders Association, Mr. Boniface Okezie, seeking to compel the apex bank to release the information under the Freedom of Information Act.

In granting part of the reliefs sought in the suit, Idris also ordered CBN to declare “the total cash and value of property recovered from Cecilia Ibru”.

He ordered the apex bank to declare “the whereabouts of the money recovered from Cecilia Ibru; and what part of this cash and properties has been returned to Oceanic Bank and/or its shareholders.”

He said the order should be complied with “within 72 hours”.

The judgment is coming two years after the then Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Dan Abutu, sitting in Lagos, ordered Ibru to forfeit the properties upon her pleading guilty to three counts of fraud.

Abutu then sentenced Ibru to six months imprisonment without an option of fine.

But Idris, in his judgment on Tuesday, said the FoI Act, “intended to be a catalyst for change in the way public institutions manage their affairs.”

He added, “What is done officially must be done according to the law,” Idris held.

Idris, nonetheless, refused the prayers of the plaintiff seeking the court to compel the CBN to also release information on the cost of its banking reform and the “amount of legal fees and other fees paid to professionals and professional bodies”.

Okezie had urged the court to declare how much of the money was paid to the law firms of Olaniwun Ajayi LP and Kola Awodein.

He also urged the court to declare how much was paid to Olaniwun Ajayi LP for the prosecution of Ibru and how much of the money stood as commissions on the properties recovered from her.

SOURCE: The Punch - Nigeria's Most Widely Read Newspaper 3 October 2012,