DISTURBED by the alleged unwholesome practices in Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, the House of Representatives, yesterday, mandated its Committee on Banking and Currency to probe operations of the bank during the tenure of Funke Osibodu and report back within 21 days.
Promoter of the motion, Akpan Micah Umoh, representing Akwa Ibom State had during his submission, said in spite of genuine efforts by government to sanitize the banking sector, certain sectors’ chief executives and managements had sought to undermine such gestures.
Akpan revealed that during the tenure of Funke Osibodu-led management of Union Bank Plc, the operations of the bank were fraught with unwholesome practices detrimental to the interest of shareholders and the nation in general.
He explained that in the face of bare facts that the Central Bank of Nigeria’s intervention in the Union Bank in 2009 was premised on charges of inadequate liquidity, poor corporate governance and inadequate capital.
Akpan said Osibodu’s management failed to write back to banks profit and loss account loans recovered from Transcorp and Global Fleet Oil and Gas and was involved in asset stripping through fraudulent reduction of book value from N79.22bn to N62.11 bn.
He also said the bank’s management manipulated AMCON purchase of alleged non-functioning loans to facilitate the giving away of the bank at a paltry N48bn when it still had a value of over N238bn, as well as unprecedented jumbo pay to directors; and unaccounted transfer of $500million through UBN UK Plc to another foreign bank.
