Play By the Rules, EFCC Boss Urges Banks CEOs

The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr Ola Olukoyede, has charged Chief Executive Officers of banks across the country to always abide by extant regulations and rules governing their practice as a way of tackling economic and financial crimes and other forms of corruption.

The EFCC boss stated this in Abuja when he received the Body of Bank CEOs, under the auspices of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, on a courtesy visit to his office at the corporate headquarters of the EFCC.

This was made known in a statement signed by the EFCC’s Head of Media and Publicity, Dele Oyewale, on Wednesday.

Olukoyede frowned at sharp practices, compromises, and unethical practices in the banking sector, while he stressed that the ethical reorientation of bank workers was imperative to sanitise the sector.

“I think the essential thing is for you all to play by the rules. Banking fraud affects the economy considerably. We are ready to work with any bank executive that plays by the rules because that is the only way of growing the  economy,” he said.

He assured the CEOs that the commission would work together with them in a way that would encourage mutual trust, which in turn would help banks and businesses grow the economy.

“We will work together; we don’t want to see any bank go down; we don’t want to see any business destroyed, especially when you are set up to create wealth and employment, and that is what we need in Nigeria. You help businesses to grow; why should any government want to bring banks down?

“But there are enterprises that are set up to destroy the system; to destroy the economy, we will not allow those ones to survive,”  he said.

The EFCC boss further reiterated his commitment to using the instrumentality of the agency’s mandate to stimulate the economy

“One of the policy objectives that I share with Nigerians in the course of my Senate screening and confirmation is to use the instrumentality of this mandate to stimulate the economy.

“That is very important because I know what other anti-corruption agencies do all over the world and that is the key to us and we have started doing that,” he said.

Speaking earlier, Managing Director, Standard Chartered Bank, Lamin Madang, who led the delegation, commended Olukoyede on his appointment, stating that the Chairman was succeeding in rebranding the image of the EFCC.

He further commended the EFCC for securing a total of 3785 convictions in 2022 as well as the 1688 convictions recorded between January and September 2023, noting that the achievement “reflects the Commission’s unwavering commitment to holding justice and the rule of law in Nigeria”.

Madang, who led CEOs of Polaris Bank, Premium Trust Bank, Citi Bank, Globus Bank, and Jaiz Bank to the meeting, appealed to the EFCC to review its policy on Post No Debit (PND), suspicious accounts, invitation of bank workers for interrogation, including CEOs, acceptance of soft copies of bank statements for investigations, among other requests.

Recall that Operatives of the Port Harcourt Zonal Command of the EFCC had on Friday, February 15, 2024, arrested a banker, Soberechukwu Inya Ewa, and a Point of Sales cashier, Azubuike Mamwu Obasi, for allegedly selling new naira notes to customers for commercial purposes.

According to the agency, a preliminary investigation showed that Ewa allegedly specialised in selling new naira notes of different denominations to POS cashiers for commercial purposes, while Obasi was caught engaging in currency racketeering by charging fees for new naira notes.

He was arrested while in possession of N554,600.00. The two suspects would be charged in court soon.