The acting Managing Director of Polaris Bank, Mr. Innocent Ike, has clarified that the sum of $300 million belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was appropriately lodged in the bank, not hidden.
Ike made the clarification when he appeared Thursday before the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on Recovered Lots and Assets of Government.
The committee had the impression that the money was “hidden in a Polaris Bank account, and remained unattended to for years.”
At the resumed public hearing of the panel in Abuja on Thursday, the lawmakers sought to know from the financial institution the interest that accrued to the money from 2012 till date.
The bank’s CEO, Ike, insisted that the fund was not hidden, but deposited appropriately by the national oil firm.
But the complainant and former public prosecutor with the defunct Special Presidential Investigative Panel (SPIP) on government assets and loots recovery, Tosin Ojaomo, disagreed.
Maintaining that the transaction was shrouded in secrecy, the ex-prosecutor stated: “The bank did not disclose anything, it secretly kept the money. It was when the presidential panel got wind of the hidden money, arrested the bank managers, interrogated and started prosecuting them that they admitted that the money was with them.”
“Upon discovery, the NNPC petitioned the House in its quest to recover the money having failed to cause the bank to release it on the corporation’s request,” he added.
The MD also told the committee that the money did not generate interest during the period, explaining that current accounts do not yield returns.
According to him, the whole money had been paid to the corporation in tranches, but failed to tender documented evidence to back up his claims as requested by the legislators.
Ike equally denied that the money was dormant in the account, clarifying that his organisation lent out the deposit to oil and gas companies and power sector operators to boost the economy.
In a unanimous resolution, the panel adjourned to another date to enable the bank tender concrete documents backing the payment to the NNPC.