At the heart of banking is a suicidal strategy. Banks take money from the public or each other on call, skim it for their own reward and then lock the rest up in volatile, insecure and illiquid loans that at times they cannot redeem without public aid. – James Buchan
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The month of June is an eventful month. One of its days marks the annulment of the election won by late business mogul, MKO Abiola. It will also be the day that the Federal High Court, Ikoyi will hear the case instituted against us by the Inspector General of Police acting under the criminal influence of their paymaster, Sterling Bank, who ran to them for protection from a N100 million fraud committed by the bank against itself and the customers.
Yes, June 12th will be everything historical for Dennis Ukpabi who blew the whistle in his now famous book ‘The Whistleblower’ and I. It will be the day that the Justice Mohammed Idris court will sit in the honorable temple of justice to determine whether it was a case of fraud published by Secret Reporters or a case of sexual exploits as exist in the warped imagination of the Executive Director in charge of Operation and Services, Mr Yemi Odubiyi and his three puppies namely Eguru Nyenke, Adekanla Desalu and Busola Awosile who still wore her legendary short skirts to the police station the three times I saw her.
Sterling Bank is everything a bank should not be. It is the poster child for financial corruption in the banking sector. It does not only steal from customers but steals from itself. For Sterling, all is fair and fair is all, as long as they make gain in the course of their business. Despite the illegal money domiciled in their vault; it is still a struggling bank that may soon collapse and only deceiving customers that it is a strong bank.
Top corporate bodies such as MRS Oil that has accounts with them has since commenced move to remove their money and move it to Fidelity Bank to avoid stories that touches the heart, but the bank in its known game of scam has been delaying the movement of the cash completely but moving it in bits; fearing that such removal of money from their vault will cripple them. Many other top companies whom I shall mention in subsequent write-ups have also done same.
For a bank currently enmeshed in a N100 million scandal, where they resurrected dormant accounts without the knowledge of the owners to run to their corrupt police partner and dole out customers cash for them to carry out the operations headed by the morally corrupt DSP Kenneth Ogbeifun tells Nigeria that Sterling will do anything to cover up every trace of corruption in the bank.
Ironically, this is a bank that preaches the whistleblowing policies and even dedicated a mail towards that, yet they could not stand a whistle blown against their own staffs which includes Yemi Odubiyi. Is anyone surprised? No! During the raid of its corporate office by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) where they were caught red handed of hiding election funds lodged by Alison Diezani Madueke and the Managing Director, HYemi Adeola was whisked away, Sterling through Odubiyi sent panic mails to all staff in the head office to remain calm and not place calls to anyone on what the bank is going through. They reached out to journalists not to report the ugly incident.
Charles Ogbu, a famous blogger best captured the N100 million fraud when he said “A fraud took place in Sterling bank. The fraud was busted by a staff of the bank in conjunction with a blogger, named Fejiro Oliver. The bank acknowledged this and even sacked those involved and suspended one.
The same people who were sacked by the bank for fraud now went to the police and lodged a complaint of cyber stalking against the two guys who exposed their fraud, the same fraud for which they were fired and one suspended by the bank.
By law, the duty of the police is fighting crime. Fraud is crime. It is a crime against both the victim and the state.
Ironically, the same police whose constitutional duty is fighting crime such as fraud now decided to overlook the crime of fraud commited by the sacked/suspended staff of Sterling bank and charged the two guys who exposed the fraud. The police didn’t just charge them to court, they were criminally inept enough to even oppose their bail application even when their alleged offence is bailable.
Beyond appalling, actually.
How do you explain a situation where the police will prioritise anything over and above their main duty of fighting crime??
Here, the case of fraud has been established. The car that was fraudulently won by the ex bank staff was even retrieved by the bank.
There is something called Public Interest for goodness sake. And according to this thing called Public Interest, this case of fraud and prosecution of the alleged fraudsters should take priority for crying out loud!
In a nutshell, fraudsters are now the ones using the police to prosecute those who exposed their fraud.
Quite frankly, this country is too primitive for some of us”.
That explains it all. The banking sector has been shrouded in enough secrecy for too long and this is time to unravel all the dirty dealings in the bank. This is the time to make the bank open their records on other crimes that they have swept other the carpets. Sterling Bank has taken a ‘bold’ step that we encourage by going to court to challenge the fraud exposed.
No joy can be sweeter than having Adeola and Odubiyi stand in the dock for questioning on their roles in this internal N100 million scam and other crimes committed by the bank. For the first time, Nigerians will be seeing a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a dying bank giving details on how the bank was able to move a staggering $200 million in 2015 to an account. It is a story that will break the internet when we reveal it.
We are more than elated to have Odubiyi tell Nigerians his special interest in Eguru and Adekanla. Graciously enough, the telecommunication still have all their voice calls and SMS exchanges that will be presented before the world. Sterling Bank cannot stand before Nigerians and demand that we bank with them, when their directors like Odubiyi runs a personal account worth staggering millions of Naira and driving the latest automobile in town when his salary cannot afford such. For a bank that lacks integrity, Nigerians money and company hard earned finances are not safe with them.
Every Nigerian worth his salt should immediately begin to withdraw their little savings from the bank to a more credible one in order not to gnash their teeth like the day of rapture. Societe General Bank started like this and the result is what we all saw. Sterling Bank has defied all ethics of the financial world and its downfall will be worse than SGB. To continue to keep two dishonest bankers within their midst who confess to a crime is the very height of thievery and covering of fraud among junior officers in the corporate world.
State Governments who maintain accounts with Sterling should instruct their Accountant General to move their accounts to a bank where honesty and integrity is treasured above sexual gratification, nepotism and favoritism. Thankfully enough, Delta State has since moved substantial amount of DESOPADEC funds with them to another bank, knowing that the bank was used for money laundering during the last political administration.
As we move to cleanse the banks beginning with Sterling; we look forward to more taking the steps that Adeola and Odubiyi began. We look forward to having hundred SANs defend them as they mount the dock. We look forward to stripping them of the cloak of integrity they pretend to wear when they are only borrowed robes. Yes, we look forward to removing every cloak of financial uprightness for Nigerians to see them for who they truly are. We look forward to having the numerous sacked staff by Odubiyi and Eguru looking into the eyes of the sack master and financial terrorists and tell the world who they truly are. We look forward to every court moment for legal fireworks and journalists having true investigative stories on how Sterling has beclouded our eyes for long on their financial misdeeds
As the battle for the restoration of pride to the banking world begin, we welcome Sterling to the field of play and wish them doom as they meet their waterloo in this epic legal battle.
Court Rise…
These little things matter…
Fejiro Oliver is Editor In Chief of Secrets Reporters News, Investigative Journalist, Media Consultant and Human Rights Activist can be reached on +2348022050733 (SMS ONLY) or secretsreporters@gmail.com. Engage him on twitter on @fejirooliver86.