Sanusi Lamido, the new Emir of Kano, is currently embroiled in a number of legal tussles, ranging from the suit against him by shareholders of the nationalised banks and the suits he instituted against the Federal Government of Nigeria, over his removal from office as the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigera, CBN. Before nationalising the banks, he got many bank executives prosecuted and a host of them lost their jobs. His allegation that $49 billion oil funds which he later scaled down to $20 billion, was missing or not remitted by Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, stoked a fire of controversy in the polity that is yet to be extinquished. Following his removal, former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, advised him to go to court to challenge the constitutionality of his removal. Days after, Sanusi instituted a suit at a Federal High Court in Abuja to challenge the powers of President Goodluck Jonathan to suspend him from office. In the suit he filed through a consortium of lawyers led by Chief Kola Awodein (SAN), Sanusi, told the court that his purported suspension was as a result of some discrepancies he discovered in respect of amounts repatriated to the federation account from the proceed of crude oil sales between January 2012 and July 2013. Sanusi contended that the President did not approach or obtained the support of the Senate, saying his discussions with several lawmakers including Senator Bukola Saraki, confirmed that the decision to oust him from office was unilaterally taken by the Presidency. While at that, shareholders of the defunct Intercontinental Bank Plc dragged Sanusi before a Federal High Court, also in Abuja, accusing him of complicity in an alleged N50 billion fraud. In a suit they entered through their lawyer, Chief Chris Uche (SAN), the plaintiffs, including Abdullahi M. Sani, Adaeze Onwuegbusi and Chijioke Ezeikpe, alleged that Sanusi, as the CBN governor, acted contrary to the provisions of sections 12, 32, 35 and 39 of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act, Cap B4 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004, by deliberately falsifying the actual financial state of affairs/ solvency of Intercontinental Bank Plc and subsequently sold it to his cronies for N50 billion. Aside Sanusi, others joined as defendants in the suit were the CBN and the Security & Exchange Commission. They are praying the court to, among other things, determine whether Sanusi, did not act fraudulently in waiving/writing off N16.2 billion owed by Mr. Aig-Aigboje Imokhuede and Mr. Herbert Wigwe, the Managing Director and Deputy Managing Director of Access Bank and N8.9 billion owed by Senator Bukola Saraki and other sums so owed, all totalling over N40 billion, in a bid to enable the said Access Bank Plc to fraudulently purchase Intercontinental Bank Plc for N50 billion only.
Posted on: Mon, 09 Jun 2014 14:09:30 +0000
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