Access Bank denies arraignment of its principal officers by ICPC
Access Bank Nigeria Plc has refuted recent newspaper and online reports (not Daily Times Nigeria) that that the bank and its principal officers have been dragged to the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), over their alleged refusal to post no debit (PND) on some accounts.
The accounts, according to the report, belonged to Blaid properties Limited and Blaid Construction Limited.
In a three-page statement signed by the Company Secretary, Sunday Ekwochi, released to the market operators on behalf of the bank by the Nigerian Stock Exchange, the bank said “contrary to the publication, neither the bank nor its officials mentioned in the publication were arraigned by the ICPC as reported.”
According to the bank, “The ICPC demanded that the bank provide an evidence that he PND has been lifted by Thursday December 7, 2017 , failing of which its officers will be detained” and being a responsible organization “ officers of the bank returned to the commission with advice from the bank’s solicitors stating why the bank cannot lift the PND in disregard of the presidential panel and the case in court FHC/ABJ/CSIII4/207 in which the federal government and the attorney general of the federation were seeking to restrain the bank from releasing funds in the account.
“Given that we had transpired, we were therefore rudely shocked to read the newspaper publications given facts that the bank and its officers had not done anything to warrant being charged for any offence.”
The bank explained that the ICPC had on 18 January, 2017, instructed the bank to allow any withdrawal from the accounts which it was investigating at the time, the bank complied with the instruction by restricting the account. And by another letter dated November 6 2017, the ICPC instructed the bank to lift the PND on the accounts.
It further stated that in compliance with the ICPC directive, “the bank took steps to engage the customers to reactivate the accounts which has since gone dormant due to the restrictions earlier placed on them.”
As this was going on, the bank said that, another letter dated 9th November 2017, the special presidential panel on recovery of public property, further directed the bank to restrict withdrawal on the account (PND).
The same stand the presidential panel reiterated on its letter of 14th November 2017, when it invited officer of the bank for a meeting on 22 November, and at the meeting, the presidential panel emphasized on strict compliance on PND on the respective accounts.
The bank explained that in a letter to ICPC dated 29 November 2017, it notified the Commission that the PND was at the instance of the presidential panela and that that there was impending suit by the panel, the federal government and the attorney general of the federation restraining the bank from releasing any fund from the account.
It also informed the commission that the Blaid properties had also filed a motion on notice seeking an order an order of the court to transfer the funds in the accounts to registrars of the federal High court, pending the determination of the suit filed by the federal government.
According to the bank “the ICPC demanded that the bank provide an evidence that he PND has been lifted by Thursday December 7, 2017 , failing of which its officers will be detained” and being a responsible organization “ officers of the bank returned to the commission with advice from the bank’s solicitors stating why the bank cannot lift the PND in disregard of the presidential panel and the case in court FHC/ABJ/CSIII4/207 in which the federal government and the attorney general of the federation were seeking to restrain the bank from releasing funds in the account.
“Given that we had transpired, we were therefore rudely shocked to read the newspaper publications given facts that the bank and its officers had not done anything to warrant being charged for any offence
Stories by Bonny Amadi
