By Seyi Odewale
Yesterday, the Chief Executive Officers of Zenith, Providus, and Jaiz banks were grilled by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) following investigations into the misappropriation of funds linked to former and suspended ministers of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu, and Sadiya Umar-Farouq.
The affected CEOs are Dr Ebenezer Onyeagwu of Zenith Bank, Haruna Musa (Jaiz Bank), and Walter Akpani (Providus Bank).
An EFCC source said the banking executives, long suspected of facilitating the improper diversion of public funds into private accounts, are currently being investigated.
It was learnt that the anti-graft agency is investigating a web of suspicious transactions involving huge sums of public money transferred into private accounts, allegedly approved by Edu and Farouq leveraging their ministerial positions.
Farouq, who led the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs under the previous administration of Muhammadu Buhari, is additionally accused of mismanagement of N37.1bn earmarked for the conditional cash transfer program during President Buhari’s tenure.
Simultaneously, the Coordinator and Chief Executive Officer of the National Social Investment Programme Agency, Halima Shehu, is also facing scrutiny over an alleged N44bn fraud.
The source revealed that a potential deliberate lapse in flagging suspicious activity by the banks – a crucial responsibility mandated by anti-financial crime laws and Central Bank of Nigeria directives – played a critical role in the brazen misappropriation of public funds.
“The CEOs and MDs of Zenith Bank, Providus Bank, and Jaiz Bank are currently being grilled by our interrogators here at the headquarters,” the source disclosed yesterday.
However, the EFCC spokesperson, Dele Oyewale was not reachable to confirm the development at press time.
Read Also:EFCC grills suspended minister, Betta Edu over alleged N585m fraud
*Suspended Edu, ex-minister Umar-Farouq still undergoing interrogation
Meanwhile, the anti-graft investigators have started grilling suspended minister Betta Edu over alleged N585m disbursement fraud.
Edu, it was learnt, arrived at the headquarters in Jabi, Abuja, at 11am.
The embattled minister came alongside her aides and lawyer and is currently facing EFCC investigators.
Edu’s appearance at the EFCC office came barely a day after she was suspended by President Bola Tinubu.
Edu was caught in an N585m disbursement scandal involving the humanitarian affairs ministry, attracting widespread criticisms from rights groups and activists.
The predicament of the 37-year-old was worsened when the Accountant General of the Federation, Oluwatoyin Madein, confirmed that although her office received a request from the humanitarian ministry to make certain payments, her office did not act on it.
The President had on Monday wielded his big stick and suspended the 37-year-old with immediate effect, making his party’s ex-national women leader the first to be removed from his 48-man cabinet inaugurated last August.
The President also ordered EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, “to conduct a thorough investigation into all aspects of the financial transactions” involving the ministry and “one or more agencies thereunder”.
Edu, 37, the youngest in the President’s cabinet before her suspension, was a fast-rising Amazon in the political space having occupied state and national offices at a young age.
Before her ministerial appointment last August, she was the National Women Leader of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) and also the Cross River State Commissioner for Health.
Edu was a prominent figure in the campaign train of Tinubu, the then APC presidential candidate, during the electioneering process that brought the ex-Lagos governor into office as President.
She clinched her ministerial appointment about three months after Tinubu was sworn in as President.
Similarly, the EFCC had on Monday quizzed Edu’s predecessor, Sadiya Farouq, over an alleged laundering of N37.1bn during her tenure as a minister.
She, however, returned yesterday for further clarifications on sundry issues that the Commission flagged in the course of its preliminary investigations.
