A former staff of First Bank of Nigeria Limited, Adesuwa Ezenwa, has told a National Industrial Court, Lagos how former Chairman of FBN Holdings, the parent company of First Bank, and billionaire industrialist, Ayoola Oba Otudeko, and Bisi Onasanya, the bank’s former Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, allegedly jointly defrauded the bank of N12billlion while they held their different positions in the bank.
Ezenwa, in a suit filed before the court is contesting her dismissal from the bank in 2016 as a result of a facility that was granted to companies which allegedly belonged to Otudeko and Onasanya but were never repaid.
In her suit, she alleged that the unsecured loans amounting to N12 billion were fraudulently approved by the bank’s board headed by Otudeko and Onasanya to a company in which Mr Otudeko has significant investment even though the facility was masked as loans to Stallion Group of Companies.
She noted that at the time the loans were secured, though she was serving as relationship manager in the bank, she did.not have the authority to approve such huge loans except her superior and the board.
The complainant alleged that she was sacked by the bank’s credit disciplinary committee as scapegoat for granting “unsecured loan facilities worth billions of naira to companies in which Mr Otudeko and Mr Onasanya have substantial investments ” but her superiors who knew about the facilities were left off the hook.
She further stated that her superiors, one Abiodun Olatunji, who was the branch manager of the bank at Adetokunbo Ademola Street, Victoria Island and later the Group Head, as well as her former Group Head, Cecilia Majekodunmi, who also later became the executive vice president, under whom she worked, received direction and the loans were approved were close allies of Onasanya who at the time was the head of the bank.
“As a relationship manager, I worked under the supervision and direction of my branch manager and group head and signed official correspondence only after they had approved and/or signed the same. I had no independent authority in relation to the grant or disbursement of loans or other banking facilities,” Ezenwa stated in her court documents.
Narrating circumstances that led to her sack, Ezenwa stated that on August 25, 2015, she was summoned by the credit disciplinary committee to appear before it concerning facilities availed to a company, Supply and Services Limited, a subsidiary of Royal Ceramics Group, one of the major customers of the bank.
She stated the committee asked her if she had any personal interest in any of the loans granted or whether she was financially induced to grant the facilities which she said no.
According to her, the committee blamed her for not reporting her superiors, Olatunji and Majekodunmi, for approving the facilities.
“The admonition was most unfair and unwarranted as I was in no position to whistleblow on my superiors. The persons to whom these reports would have been made were the very persons who were the perpetrators of the misdeeds,” she stated.
Ezenwa further alleged that in 2012, an unsecured facilities estimated at N2 billion was granted to Broadwaters Resources Company Nigeria Limited, which allegedly turned out to be ‘a conduit pipe used by Mrs Majekodunmi and Mr Onasanya to siphon monies from the bank.’ She said the loan was never repaid.
“Out of the N12 billion camouflaged as lending to the Stallion Group, N8.21 billion was transferred through various accounts to a final destination account belonging to a company known as V-TECH LTD, which belongs to the chairman of FBN Holdings, Oba Otudeko, while the sum of N4.45 billion out of the same fictitious facility was transferred to Ontario Oil and Gas. The facility remains unpaid to date,” she stated.
According to her, apart from the N12billlion loan, other similar loans were approved and granted by Olatunji and Majekodunmi to Supplies and Services Limited, which were “subsequently sublet and disbursed in smaller bits to several customers on more profitable terms to both officers.”
Swap Technologies and Telecomms Plc, Orbit Cargo, Netconstruct Nigeria Limited, and High-Performance Distributions Limited were among the companies named as beneficiaries of the loan disbursement.
She noted that such huge loans could not have been approved by her, the executive director, vice president or managing director as it was above their approval limits adding that only the board of which Otudeko was a member had the right to approve such.
According to the complainant, her dismissal by the bank brought her into disrepute, threatening her chances of securing employment in reputable companies in future.
Ezenwa is therefore demanding N500million in damages and tN25million in legal costs.
“The action of the defendant (First Bank) has consequently caused the claimant untold mental distress and is all the more damaging as the claimant is in her thirties and has simply been made a scapegoat for the malfeasance of some of the lapses of the management of the bank,” she said.
She is also urging the court to declare that there was no basis for the bank to dismiss her.
