Adebisi Omoyeni alleged forgery and N450 million fraud at Wema Bank

The immediate past Group Managing Director of Wema Bank Plc, Mr. Adebisi Omoyeni, was yesterday arrested by detectives attached to the Police Special Fraud Unit (SFU) in Abuja and flown to Lagos where he is being detained. Omoyeni, a one-time Ekiti State Deputy Governor, was immediately driven to Milverton Road, Ikoyi, Lagos - the annex of SFU - for interrogation over alleged forgery and N450 million fraud at Wema Bank during his tenure. The embattled former GMD, who was accompanied by some relations and friends, was immediately ferried into the SFU annex office by detectives, led by Mr. Dayo Akinbisehin, Superintendent of Police (SP), at George Street, by Ikoyi Club, Lagos, at 3:46 pm. He was said to have been arrested from his temporary abode at Command Guest House, Asokoro, Abuja. Addressing newsmen, Mr Olushola Amore, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, said Omoyeni was arrested following a case of conspiracy against him and the bank's former secretary, Mr Biodun Ogunlade, by the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Commission (NDIC). He explained that they were alleged to have forged and altered the minutes book of the board meeting to read five years upfront housing allowance of N450 million to be written off in five years at N90 million per year. Specifically, he said the amount was meant for the purchase of a house worth N450 million as official residence for the GMD and was to be written off in five years. Amore added that the money had since been collected by the ex-GMD. He also said that on Jan. 8, 2008, the finance division of Wema Bank allegedly withdrew N29 million cash from the Marina branch of the bank and was debited as provision for Productivity Bonus Act No.171050001.
"The NDIC examiners got wind of the transactions and sought to know the purpose of withdrawal. And sequel to NDIC's awareness of the irregular transaction, N20 million was refunded on Jan. 9, 2008. "The sum of N9 million was paid to Messrs Olapade Mohammed and Senator Omololu Meroyi with each person receiving N5 million and N4 million respectively," Amore said. He, however, said Omoyeni claimed that the N29 million had already been refunded at a meeting attended by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), NDIC and the bank's board on Jan. 18, 2008.
Amore said investigation later revealed that the bank merely debited the account of the two directors, thereby creating an unsolicited credit facility.
He added that investigations into the receipt of N450 million by the ex-GMD by CBN and NDIC revealed that he paid about N182, 671,000 to the implementation committee on the lease of Federal Government property and also paid N263 million to StonePavers International Ltd. Earlier yesterday, some of the Wema Bank board members, including Senator Omololu Meroyi, Mr. Biodun Ogunlade, and Olapade Mohammed, were invited by the unit for interrogation on their involvement in the alleged scam. Omoyeni is currently on a forced leave for denying bank examiners unfettered access to the books and records of Wema Bank.
He had petitioned President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua last January attaching several documents as evidence to depict that Mr. Ganiyu Ogunleye, Managing Director of the NDIC, its Director, Field Examinations Department, Mr. O.M. Sulaiman, and the CBN Deputy Governor, Mr. Tunde Lemo, were colluding "to kill Wema Bank". Among other allegations levelled against Lemo, who was at the helm of affairs of the bank till 2003, was that he forcibly attempted to acquire the institution along with his cronies. He also claimed that Lemo and his cronies forcibly attempted to acquire Wema Bank and that the Deputy CBN governor contributed to running the bank aground.
It was based on this petition that the president through his Secretary, Ambassador Babagina Kingibe, last month among others, directed that the compulsory leave placed on Omoyeni be lifted. He also directed that an independent panel of investigators be set up and that Lemo be asked to respond to the allegations against him "to enable the panel of investigators consider it alongside allegations against Mr. Omoyeni, including from the perspective of a possible insider abuse." But the NDIC in its response to the president's directive, categorically dismissed all the allegations levelled against Lemo, saying Omoyeni's petition was an attempt to confuse serious issues relating to the financial health and continued survival of Wema Bank. The dismissal of these allegations by the Corporation was contained in letter addressed to the President Yar'Adua, which was exclusively obtained and reported by THISDAY Tuesday last week.

Commenting on the alleged forcible bid to acquire Wema Bank by Lemo and his cronies, the NDIC specifically pointed accusing fingers at Omoyeni, saying he fraudulently organised a management buy-out of the bank. To execute the plot, the Corporation said: "Mr. Omoyeni approved N3.9 billion loan to staff, and over N28 billion to the bank's subsidiaries mainly to purchase the bank's shares. Thus, as at 31st January, 2008, the subsidiaries of the bank held more than 1.879 billion shares of the bank. That was outside the 2.6 billion shares divested by Odua and another 700 million units that were sold directly by Mr. Omoyeni to his nominees and associates. Simply put, it was Mr. Omoyeni that determined who got what number of shares." Besides, an aggrieved investor, Mrs. Josephine Kuteyi, who is also one of the valued customers of the bank, petitioned the NDIC, to among others, complain that Omoyeni offered her 5 per cent or 444,396,079 units of the bank's shares for which she paid the sum of N1.625 billion to the bank on the 25th of February, 2007. "To her consternation, no share certificate was issued to her. She was later told, about December 2007, that she was allotted only 37.5 million units instead of the 444,396 million shares that she paid for. She also claimed that she has not been paid the balance of her deposit for shares. The forgoing shows that Mr. Omoyeni was the dealer that sold all the divested Odua shares in Wema Bank to his nominees. He would have escaped with all the illicit deals, if the bank had gone to the market to raise fresh funds and if there had been no regulatory intervention," the NDIC said.
On the claim that Lemo ran the bank aground during his tenure as the MD/CEO of Wema Bank, the NDIC noted that since Omoyeni had been an Executive Director since 1999, he must have been privy to all decisions taken by the various board and managements of the bank during the period in question. "He (Omoyeni) should not now claim innocence for any error, commission or omission. Indeed, he was at the board meetings in which Suffolk (one of the companies in which Omoyeni alleged Lemo granted non-performing loans to) and related loans that he now blames Mr. Lemo for were approved unanimously. Besides, our review of the loans o Suffolk Engineering revealed that they were in the performing mode when Mr. Lemo left the bank.

"From Mr. Omoyeni's letter, one could easily be deceived into thinking that Mr. Tunde Lemo was his immediate predecessor in office. He had underplayed the fact that after Lemo left office, Alhaji Musiliu Adeleke became the MD/CEO of the bank and that he was at the helms for almost two years with himself (Omoyeni) retaining his seat as Executive Director," the Corporation explained. On the issue of fictitious debt recovery placed at the doorstep of Lemo, who had left the bank in January 2004, the NDIC noted that the latter could not have perpetrated the act because "the NDIC had during the 2006 routine examination of the bank reported that Wema Bank purchased a number of cheques from other banks between 13th July and 7th August, 2006, to window dress some loans and make them look like they are performing. Specifically, it said "it was the management led by Mr. Omoyeni, which submitted the said cheques totalling N1.93 billion as evidence of debt recovery." Besides, the report also noted that NDIC's "2006 examination revealed that the bank, under Mr. Omoyeni, delisted some government related loans to evade provisioning while non-performing loans amounting to N4.071 billion were reclassified and booked as other assets." On the alleged connivance of NDIC MD and its Field Examiner in the plot "to kill Wema Bank," the report noted that it was because Omoyeni failed to prevail on the management of NDIC to call of the scheduled statutory examination of Wema Bank, that he resorted to a campaign of denigration in the news media to malign the Corporation. "The report of 2007 routine examination concluded that the bank was in dire need of restoration. Governance process of the bank continued to exhibit unacceptable practices. Such practices, which relate to non-adherence to ethic and professionalism, non-adherence to due process and persistent violation of banking rules and regulations required urgent intervention of the owners and supervisory authorities to protect depositors, investors and the financial system," the report stressed.