Leke Baiyewu and Okechukwu Nnodim
The House of Representatives’ Ad Hoc Committee on Assessment and Status of All Recovered Loots Movable and Immovable Assets from 2002 to 2020 by Agencies of the Federal Government of Nigeria for Effective Efficient Management and Utilisation, on Thursday, grilled the Acting Managing Director, Polaris Bank Limited, Innocent Ike, over an account belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
Over $200m was said to have been allegedly hidden in the account, which was opened in 2012.
Polaris Bank, formerly Skye Bank, said it forwarded the balance to the Central Bank of Nigeria in compliance with the Treasury Single Account policy of the Federal Government.
The committee, however, invited the NNPC to come forward and explain the circumstances surrounding the account, while asking the bank to forward evidence of the remittance within one week.
Chairman of the committee, Adejoro Adeogun, had noted that a special prosecutor to the defunct Special Presidential Panel for the Recovery of Public Property, Mr Tosin Ojaomo, raised the alarm over the alleged maintenance of an account with the Deposit Money Bank against the TSA policy.
Adeogun noted that several top government officials had been summoned and appeared before the committee to account for recovered loot. He said, “In the course of our ongoing inquiry, we did find out that there were depositions; they alleged that there were infractions by your bank and there were gaps in the records supplied by some of these agencies, and you have been invited to give your side of the story
