The managing director and the chief executive officer of Fidelity Bank Plc, Mr Nnamdi Okonkwo, has returned N40 million to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The said N40 million represents the interest element of the sum the bank’s managing director collected from the former minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke.
A credible source in the anti-graft agency disclosed this to LEADERSHIP FRIDAY last night.
The source, who sought anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the matter, added that Okonkwo and other suspects in the alleged fraud are still being quizzed to ascertain their level of involvement, and that they are still under EFCC custody at press time.
According to the source, the outcome of the current investigation will enable the commission to pursue the matter to a logical conclusion and prosecute the suspects accordingly.
The EFCC had arrested the Fidelity Bank managing director and other officials following their alleged receipt of $115million from Diezani. The commission also arrested the bank’s head of operations, Mr Martins Izuogbe, over his role in the alleged fraud.
Diezani was said to have invited Okonkwo to assist her in handling the said $115million which was distributed to certain INEC officials and groups during the build up to the 2015 presidential election.
But the bubble bust when the EFCC began investigations into how officials of INEC in Rivers, Delta and Akwa Ibom states received N675million from Diezani’s largesse.
Meanwhile, some INEC officials from Oyo and Ogun states have returned some undisclosed amounts of money to the commission.
A source close to the EFCC confirmed the development to LEADERSHIP FRIDAY yesterday, saying that the INEC officials are still being interrogated by the agency’s operatives in order to get to the root of the matter.
We Duly Reported Diezani’s Transactions – Fidelity Bank
Following the arrest of the managing director of Fidelity Bank Plc by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for allegedly receiving $115 million from former minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, the bank has stated that the said transaction was duly reported to the regulators.
Fidelity Bank’s MD, Nnamdi Okonkwo, and some officials of the bank were on Wednesday arrested by the EFCC for their role in the scam.
However, in a statement issued yesterday, the bank said the transactions were undertaken by the bank in the normal course of business in 2015.
“The transactions are now the subject of investigations by the EFCC. We can confirm that the transactions were duly reported as required by the regulators and the bank is cooperating fully with the authorities in the investigation,” it said.
The bank also assured its stakeholders, “including our customers, that we are working assiduously towards a quick resolution of the issues.”
The EFCC had begun investigations into how officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission in Rivers, Delta and Akwa Ibom states received N675 million.
An official of the EFCC was quoted as saying “during investigations into the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioners, we got a major breakthrough as funds disbursed were traced to Fidelity Bank. We invited the MD, who then confessed to us that during the build-up to the presidential election, Diezani invited him to a meeting in Abuja. Diezani told him that some companies would deposit some funds in his bank and that she would give him further instructions on how the funds would be disbursed. (Leadership)
