N20bn bailout: Kogi Assembly threatens to arrest Sterling Bank MD

The Kogi House of Assembly has threatened to issue a warrant of arrest against the Managing Director of Sterling Bank Plc., Mr Abubakar Suleiman.

The assembly said it would effect the arrest, if the managing director failed to appear before it on Nov. 16.

Speaker of the House, Mr Matthew Kolawole issued the threat at plenary on Tuesday, following the inability of the managing director of the bank to honour the invitation of the house.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the house on Nov. 2, invited the managing director to clarify issues surrounding the controversial N20 billion bailout fund the bank claimed it would send back to the Central Bank of Nigeria.

NAN also recalls that the state Commissioner for Finance, Mr Asiwaju Asiru Idris, alongside the state Accountant General, Mr Jibril Momoh and Auditor General, Mr Yakubu Okala appeared before the house on Nov. 2, to offer clarification on the alleged N20 billion bailout fund.

On resumption of plenary on Tuesday, the Regional Manager of Sterling Bank, Mr Enejo Ibrahim; and Counsel to the Bank, Mr Olukayode Enitan (SAN) were at the assembly to represent the managing director.

Enitan stated that the managing director just got the invitation, necessitating a representation by the regional manager.

The speaker, at a Committee of the Whole, insisted that the representatives would not be allowed to speak except they tendered a letter from the managing director authorising them to represent him.

Kolawole gave the bank’s chief executive officer till Nov. 16, to appear before it, saying that any attempt to dishonour the invitation would make the house to apply every legal means to coerce appearance.

He pointed out that the claim that the state government fixed the bailout fund meant for payment of salary arrears for civil servants, in an account with the bank had brought embarrassment to the government and people of Kogi.

Kolawole said investigations by the house Committee on Public Accounts, revealed that the allegations were baseless and untrue, adding that the assembly would get to the root of the matter.

The speaker in his ruling upon return to his seat, gave the ultimatum of Tuesday, Nov.16, for the MD, Sterling Bank to present himself before the house for necessary explanations or Executive Order of Arrest would be applied.

It would be recalled that on Aug. 31, Justice Tijani Ringim, a Lagos High Court vacation Judge, froze the Kogi account domiciled in Sterling Bank Plc., following an ex-parte application brought by the EFCC.

The EFCC had alleged that the bailout money, which was meant for payment of salary arrears in the state, was kept in an interest-yielding account with the name of the state as “Kogi State Salary Bailout Account.”

(PM News: Excludes headline)