How Former Bank Chief, Erastus Akingbola Bought London Properties for £9.7m Reveals By Witness | Explore Viral World News And Politics - Europe & Middle East,Asian News,African News,US News.
A prosecution witness, Abdulraheem Jimoh, in the ongoing trial of Erastus Akingbola, a former Managing Director of the defunct Intercontinental Bank Plc, on Wednesday, March 13, 2019, told Justice Mojisola Olatoregun of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, how the defendant diverted funds from the bank and bought some properties in London for the total sums of £9.7m.
The prosecution had, on Tuesday, March 12, opened the trial of the former bank chief.
One of the counts reads: "That you, Dr. Erastus B.O. Akingbola, whilst being the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Intercontinental Bank Plc, between November 2007 and July 2008, at Lagos within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, caused to be created a misleading appearance of active trading in the shares of Intercontinental Bank Plc on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, by being connected with the utilization of an aggregate sum of N179, 385, 000, 000 (One Hundred and Seventy- Nine Billion, Three Hundred and Eighty-five Million Naira) of the bank's funds for the purchase of Intercontinental Bank Plc's shares."
At the resumed hearing today, Jimoh a former Chief Inspector with the defunct Intercontinental Bank, told the court how he unravelled fraudulent transactions by Akingbola.
Led in evidence by the prosecution counsel, Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, the witness said: "I was given a letter by the Management of the bank, which came from Tropics Securities Limited, a company owned by Dr. Erastus Akingbola, his wife and some other shareholders.
"The letter was addressed to the Group Managing Director, Dr. Erastus Akingbola and was attentioned to Mr. Olayinka Adebiyi, requesting the payment of N10billion, N1.2billion and N4.3billion to Tropics Securities Limited and other companies". "Investigation report on the issuance of N10billion to Tropics Properties, Tropic Securities Limited and Bankinson Nigeria Limited showed the monies paid and cleared by Access Bank were said to have been used to pay for the "indebtedness to Access Bank".