A panic button has been set off inside the Nigerian banking sector with a new wave of the prosecution of bank chiefs in headline-making trials is looms. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) The EFCC Chairman, Olanipekun Olukoyede dropped the biggest hint yet yesterday saying his agency will soon commence prosecuting banks and their top officials for financial fraud. And sources have suggested the list to contain names of the executives of a recently liquidated bank, among others.The EFCC boss was quoted at the 17th Annual Banking and Finance Conference, organised by the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) in Abuja themed ‘Accelerated Economic Growth and Development, the State of Play and the Way Forward’.
Mr Olukoyede said the commission had completed its investigations and assembled the necessary documents to substantiate its case. The EFCC chair repeated again, the claim that some major and mind-boggling financial frauds in the country were committed through the banking industry.
Olukayode who was represented by the commission’s Director, Internal Audit, Idowu Apejoye.reiterated the need to enforce the sanction regime against erring bankers. ” In a system where there are no sanctions, that system will not survive,” he said.