These are certainly not the best of times for Polaris Bank Limited as the financial institution has been engulfed in a $300 million mess.
For those who don’t know, the House of Representatives Ad hoc Committee on Recovered Loots and Assets of Government has uncovered how a whopping sum of $300 million belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was hidden in Polaris Bank.
The Committee at the public hearing in Abuja on Thursday, June 24th, 2021 demanded to know from Polaris Bank the interest that the money has generated from 2012 till date.
However, on his part, Acting Managing Director (MD) of Polaris Bank, Innocent Ike disclosed that the money was not hidden, but deposited appropriately by the national oil firm
Be that as it may, the complainant, a former public prosecutor with the defunct Special Presidential Investigative Panel (SPIP) on Government Assets and Loots Recovery, Tosin Ojaomo, disconcurred.
He said; “The transaction is shrouded in secrecy. The bank did not disclose anything, it secretly kept the money. It was when the presidential panel got wind of the hidden money, arrested the bank managers, interrogated and started prosecuting them that they admitted that the money was with them.”
“Upon discovery, the NNPC petitioned the House in its quest to recover the money having failed to cause the bank to release it on the corporation’s request.”
Meanwhile, the Bank’s Managing Director, told the committee that the money did not generate interest during the period, stating that current accounts do not yield returns.
He said the whole money has been paid to the corporation in tranches, but failed to tender documented evidence to back up his claims as requested by the legislators.
Besides, documents available to the committee revealed that about $32 million of the lump sum remained unaccounted for.
The bank Chief Executive equally denied that the money was dormant in the account, clarifying that his organisation lent out the deposit to oil and gas companies and power sector operators to boost the economy.
In a unanimous resolution, the panel adjourned to another date to enable the bank tender concrete documents backing the payment to the NNPC.