By GINIKA OKOYE

Some financial experts have called on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to institute regulatory actions against the management of Providus Bank for failure to report suspicious money deposited in its vault.

Speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Tuesday, the experts said that regulatory action was necessary to save the image of the country and its financial system at the international market.

Reports say that seven million dollars was deposited into the vaults of Providus Bank, at its headquarters in Victoria Island, Lagos, but the bank failed to file a Suspicious Transaction Report (STR), with the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU).

The experts described the development as `sad and unhealthy? for the country?s banking system.

Mr. Okechukwu Unegbu, a former President of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), said that the bank?s management exhibited attitude that encouraged criminal money laundering.

He said that the bank had succeeded in tarnishing the country?s image both locally and internationally.

According to him, if the CBN and NFIU were to do their job, the bank at least will be suspended from all transactions until such issue is cleared.

?The bank has helped in no small way in tarnishing the Nigerian economy and our image before the international community.

?I recommend and advise that they should be punished.

?They should not be kept in that position any longer because they have shown they are not responsible.

?How can you get a deposit of seven million dollars and you kept it and never reported, that is not good for the banking system and even for the CBN,? he said.

He suggested that the forfeited fund be channeled toward the development of the country?s educational system.

Ms Praise Adewumi, a financial analyst, described the situation as suspicious.

Adewumi called on the CBN and other relevant agencies to engage the bank with a view to unraveling the true picture around the money.

?I just hope the forfeited fund will be channelled into things that will benefit the generality of citizens and not to a few people to avoid re-looting it,?? she said.

Dr. Chijioke Ekechukwu said that the owner of the fund would not have denied ownership if the bank had mentioned his or her name.

?I am sure the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was more interested in recovering the funds than knowing who the depositor was.

?This is because there is no way the bank will be confused about the actual owner of the fund.

?The so-called depositor would have still forfeited the funds even if he or she admitted ownership and that was why the option of denial came to play,? Ekechukwu said.

Reports say an anonymous whistleblower alerted the EFCC over the unusual transactions.

Acting on the intelligence, the EFCC visited the bank unannounced and demanded for the money, while leaving with some of the staff members for proper interrogation.

On further interrogation, the arrested bank staff members said that the seven million dollars belonged to Aisha Achimugu, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ocean Gate Petroleum, who, however, denied ownership.

The EFCC, therefore, put up an advert in national newspapers, inviting whoever owned the contentious money to come forward and explain its source, but nobody came forward to claim the money.

Given the absence of legitimate claimants, the EFCC went to court to secure the final forfeiture of the money to the federal government.

Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court had ordered the permanent forfeiture of the seven million dollars (about N11.2 billion) to the Federal Government following an application by the EFCC. (NAN)

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