ICPC discovers N258m hidden in sterling bank vault, arrests managers
As part of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission’s ongoing efforts to make sure commercial banks follow the Central Bank of Nigeria’s directive on the distribution of the redesigned naira notes, agents found N258 million stashed in the vault at the head office of Sterling Bank in Abuja last Friday.
After one of the commission’s operations to make sure that commercial banks and other interest groups don’t go against the central bank’s orders, this was found.
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In a statement that our correspondent got on Tuesday night, Mrs. Azuka Ogugua, who works for the agency that fights corruption, said this.
Ogugua said that when the ICPC monitoring team went to the bank and found the new naira notes hidden in the bank’s vault, they were told that the money was the last of what the CBN had given the bank to give to its branches.
“However, the team found out that only N5 million was given to each of their different branches.
“Both the Regional and Service managers were arrested and later released on administrative bail while the investigation continues,” she said.
In a similar way, the commission arrested the Head of Operations at Keystone Bank in Mararaba, Nasarawa State, for making customers wait too long to get the new naira notes.
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During a routine operation, the ICPC team found that the ATMs at the branch were not giving out money to its customers, while other bank customers could only get N1000 notes.
Ogugua also said that the ATMs only started giving out N5,000 to people who were not customers of the bank after the arrests were made and the CBN made it clear that the bank’s employees were in the wrong place.
Abdulkareem Shaibu, a security guard at Zenith Bank on 3rd Avenue in Gwarimpa, Ali Adam, and Shafiu Umar were also caught by the team.
Adam and Umar were arrested in front of Zenith Bank on 1st Avenue Gwarimpa for selling the new Naira notes. Shaibu, the security guard, was arrested because he had five ATM cards that he was using to get money for unknown people who were not in the bank at the time.
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