A major crisis looms in the financial sector, as
all banks in the country may shut their doors to
customers anytime this week, as their chief
executive officers (CEOs) move to protest the
continued detention of their staff by the
Department of State Security (DSS).
Daily Sun gathered that the CEOs are irked by the
arrest and detention of several key officials of no
fewer than 13 banks over the last two weeks by
security operatives, saying that this has not only
crippled their operations but also poses a great risk
if normal banking operations continues.
The 13 banks directly affected by the arrests are
Zenith Bank, Access Bank, Fidelity Bank, Unity Bank,
First City Monument Bank (FCMB), First Bank Plc,
Skye Bank, Sterling Bank, Diamond Bank, Ecobank,
Wema Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank and CitiBank.
The arrest of the bank officials are linked to money
laundering case against the Jigawa State governor,
Alhaji Sule Lamido, a key member of the G7
governors, who is also one of the arrowheads of the
New PDP believed to be opposed to President
Goodluck Jonathan’s rumoured second term
ambition.
The DSS is said to be investigating questionable
transactions involving the governor and two of his
sons, Aminu and Mustapha, who is the District Head
of Bamaina, their hometown. While the governor is
said to have escaped arrest, as a result of his
constitutional immunity, his two sons were arrested
last week by the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC). However, it is the DSS that is
handling the case of the bankers.
According to the DSS, following the arrest of Aminu,
last year, at the Aminu Kano International Airport
Kano, for failing to make full declaration of the $50,
000 he had on him while trying to board a flight to
Egypt, where his wife was receiving treatment,
further investigation of the sources of income of the
governor’s son revealed huge transactions involving
the movement of Jigawa State funds into accounts
of companies in which both the governor and his
two sons are believed to have interest. The amount
involved, according to the DSS, is about N10 billion.
The DSS had subsequently swooped on the 13
banks in which the companies have accounts and
even obtained a court order to freeze the accounts.
Also, it had begun a systematic arrest and detention
of senior officials of the bank in the last two weeks.
While not questioning the powers of the DSS to
arrest anybody, a source close to one of the bank
chief executive told Daily Sun yesterday that the
CEOs were worried that the bankers have been
held without arraignment, for over two weeks, a
clear violation of their rights.
“The laws of the country say that nobody can be
detained for more than 48 hours without been
charged to court,” the source said, adding: “Some of
them have now been detained for 16 days without
access to their families or lawyers. They are being
held incommunicado.”
According to him, the bank chiefs, some of who met
last weekend, are saying that they might not have
any other choice than to shut down operations, as
some of the officials being detained are key to their
operations.
“One of those arrested is a director. Some others
are risk managers, fraud control and detection
officers, zonal and regional coordinators and key IT
experts. There are compliance managers among
the arrested. There are also account officers,
branch managers, chief inspectors and heads of
treasury among those arrested. To continue to
operate without these key personnel could expose
depositors’ funds to serious danger. So, the bank
CEOs are thinking it might be safer to close shop to
secure depositors’ funds and reduce expose to a
possible collapse of the nation’s banking system,”
the senior bank sour said.
Apart from the risk of possible compromise of the
system, the bank chiefs are also frowning at the
propriety of the DSS action. They fear that, unlike
the EFCC and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN),
which have the wherewithal to investigate bank
transactions and fraud, the DSS may not be
threading on a familiar turf.
The source said: “The banks daily, and statutorily,
report transactions and fraud alerts to both the
EFCC and the CBN. If there is any suspicion over
such transactions, the DSS can crosscheck and verify
with both the EFCC and the CBN. It is rather
shocking that the investigation of transactions by
companies of the sons of the Jigawa State governor
would warrant such mindless and elaborate
disruption of banking operations in 13 banks, which
is what this arrest and continued detention of these
critical bank official amount.”
Another source close to a bank CEO said the
manner of arrest was an issue also. According to
him, the idea of literally kidnapping these bankers
and traumatising their families is particularly unfair.
“Even though none of the officials was said to have
resisted arrest or refused to co-operate with the
security operative, the security personnel still
hounded them down like common criminals. Some
were aroused from sleep, with machine guns
pointed at them and their family members,” the
source stated.
He particularly pointed to a case in Lagos, where
the child of the affected officer was rudely awoken
from sleep by scores of gun-wielding operatives,
who were turning their home upside-down,
allegedly searching for documents.
According to him, another of the bankers arrested
in Lagos was eventually moved to Abuja in a
military aircraft.
He said the bank chiefs, who are seriously
considering the option of closing shop and going on
strike may make true their threat anytime between
today and Wednesday, to secure depositors’ funds,
which, he said, have been exposed to grave danger,
by the arrests.
When contacted on the development last night, a
highly placed officer of the DSS said the service was
unmoved by the threat of the strike,
“I dare them to try it. Nigeria will not collapse. We
might be forced to go public with information we
have on what they are doing, both the governors
and the bank chiefs. If you tell Nigerians the whole
truth the citizens of some of these states would
want to stone their governors. It’s not only the
Jigawa case. Many governors are also into it. Also, it
is not about, nor is it restricted to G7 governors. It
cuts across.”
On the propriety of the DSS investigating and
arresting bankers, the officials directed the CEOs to
the statues setting up the service.
“Our brief covers what we are doing. We are
empowered to investigate both security and
financial crimes that could have security
implications,” he insisted.
He further asked: “How can somebody steal as
much as N75billion that has the capacity to upturn
the entire economy and you say you can’t
investigate?”
He said that era of people using strike and all
manner of threat to blackmail security officials from
uncovering their dubious ways have passed. “Let
them go on strike and we would get our bosses to
address a press conference to go public with what
we have uncovered,” he fired back.
Daily Sun gathered that the law actually empowers
DSS to probe financial crime. Instrument 1 of May
1999 empowers the service to carry out the
prevention, detection and investigation of: a) Threat
of espionage; b) threat of subversion; c) threat of
sabotage; d) economic crimes of national security
dimension; e) terrorist activities; f) separatist and
inter-group conflicts; g) threat to law and order.
All efforts to get the CBN to comment on the
development proved abortive, as calls to the line of
the apex bank’s governor kept saying it was
switched off.
Similarly, he was yet to reply an SMS to that effect
as at press time last night.
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