The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, has fired yet another missile. But this time, President Goodluck Jonathan is not the target. The person to whom Sanusi Lamido Sanusi directed his latest missile is the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye.
The CBN Governor is accusing the revered man of God of aiding and abetting corruption by shielding the former CEO of Intercontinental Bank Plc, Erastus Akingbola.
Akingbola is a member of RCCG, who has been indicted for various financial fraud while he held sway at the bank before it was liquidated.
Nigerian authorities asserted that the former banking executive siphoned over N200 billion from the commercial bank he ran.
Officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) also accused Akingbola of using his loot to buy swanky properties in Europe and other parts of the world. The former InterContinental Bank chief also reportedly manipulated his bank’s stocks in insider trading deals.
Akingbola fled to the United Kingdom as soon as Nigerian authorities indicated their desire to try him. He was later forced to return to Nigeria, but his prosecution soon fizzled in what EFCC sources privately confided to be a deal hatched at the highest levels to let him walk free.
Sanusi hinted at Pastor’s Adeboye’s involvement in the deal in a widely circulated circulated TEDX talk he gave in Abuja, the Nigerian capital. In the
video, the CBN governor relates his encounters with vested interests in
the banking sector.
Although Sanusi did not expressly mention Pastor Adeboye by name,SaharaReporters reported that it was able to confirm from two sources that the Redeemed Church leader was involved in the deals that led to the
obstruction of Akingbola’s trial.
Justice Habeeb Abiru, who was handling Akingbola’s trial, was suddenly promoted to the Court of Appeals after Pastor Adeboye intervened on behalf of the banker with President Goodluck Jonathan, one of the sources told news men.
Akingbola’s case has since stalled in a maze of judicial manipulations and is currently being tried by a third judge in Lagos.
In the video, the Central Bank Governor also made a crucial retreat from the position he took during the fuel price hike protests of January 2012.
Sanusi had publicly and forcefully defended the case for increasing the price of fuel and other gasoline products. But in the TED talk, he
admitted that Nigerians who revolted in the “Occupy Nigeria” protests after the Goodluck Jonathan administration unveiled higher fuel prices were
right.
He disclosed that most of the fuel subsidy funds had been stolen by highly connected individuals who continue to evade justice.
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