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This followed a report submitted to President Bola Tinubu by
the Special Investigator on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Related
Entities, Jim Obazee.
According to Inside Business, the others affected are Union
Bank, Polaris Bank and Keystone Bank.
It was reported that the decision to dissolve the boards was
taken after a meeting between the CBN Governor, Yemi Cardoso, Obazee and the
boards of the four banks including Titan Trust Bank’s investors who had earlier
avoided meeting with the Special Investigator.
In December 2023 that the office of the Special Investigator
had insisted that the Chairman of Titan Trust Bank (TTB), Mr Tunde Lemo, Mr
Cornelius Vink and Rahul Savara must appear before it over the acquisition of
the Union Bank of Nigeria.
The Special Investigator who had summoned Lemo, who is also
a former deputy governor of the CBN, rejected Lemo’s request for an extension
of time for shareholders to prove their ownership of Titan Trust Bank.
It insisted that Lemo and others summoned in a December 24
letter must appear to prove that their acquisition of Union Bank followed due
process. It noted that they risked losing the financial institution to the
Nigerian government.
The Special CBN Investigator in a letter dated December 24,
2023, signed by the Head of Operations, Office of the Special Investigator, DCP
Eloho Okpoziakpo, directed Lemo to report at the Department of Force
Intelligence, opposite the Force headquarters, Shehu Shagari Way, Abuja on
Thursday, December 28, 2023.
According to the letter obtained, Babatunde who was expected
to be questioned over the UBN acquisition, was instructed to come along with
the promoters of Titan Trust Bank, Mr Vink and Mr Savara, to meet with the team
of special Investigators.
The letter directed all the summoned persons to “come along
with all the documents/information requested from them by the letter to Mr
Cornelius Vink dated 28th August 2023 (attached herewith as Appendix 1). You
will also be required to make additional statements to your earlier statement
on that day.
“Kindly note that if Messrs Cornelius Vink and Rahul Savara
refuse to attend this meeting and provide/defend the requested
documents/information, it will be construed that they have decided to forfeit
their purported shareholdings in TTB and Union Bank of Nigeria; irrespective of
which vehicle that they are using to own the purported shares.
“Should you also refuse to attend the meeting to provide an
additional statement to your earlier statement made in August 2023, it will be
construed that you misled the Nigerian public with your reaction in the PUNCH
Newspapers today which has gained wide publicity in both electronic and print
media.”
Earlier report shows that the report of the Special
Investigator showed that the former CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, allegedly
used his proxies to acquire Union Bank.
The report further linked the late Alhaji Ismaila Isa
Funtua, an ally of former President Muhammadu Buhari, alongside Emefiele to the
acquisition of Keystone Bank and Polaris Bank.
According to the report, the acquisitions were carried out
separately over time as seen in the report submitted to President Tinubu on
December 20, 2023.
The Special Investigator said that it reached the conclusion
following the failure of the purported shareholders to appear before its panel
with the necessary documents to prove that they genuinely acquired the bank and
recommended that the Nigerian government should take over the bank from the
purported owner.
However, Lemo had in a widely circulated statement rejected
the assertion by the Special Investigator, and asked the Special Investigator
to give the shareholders seven days to prove their ownership of Titan Trust
Bank and Union Bank of Nigeria with necessary documents, failure of which the
two entities should be forfeited to the Federal Government
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