By INNOCENT ANABA
LAGOS—Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Monday, denied any involvement in setting up Mainstreet Bank Limited as a bridge bank to assume the deposits, liabilities and assets of Afribank Nigeria Plc.

Malam Lamido Sanusi, CBN Governor, stated this in a counter-affidavit deposed to on his behalf to a motion filed by five aggrieved shareholders of Afribank.

The shareholders had through their lawyer, Mr Onyebuchi Aniakor, urged a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos to reverse the revocation of Afribank licence on the ground that it was a ploy by CBN to overreach their pending suit on the matter and to ridicule the judiciary.

Sanusi, in the 12- paragraph counter-affidavit, averred that contrary to widespread contention, it was actually Nigeria Deposit Insurance Commission, NDIC, that organised the bridge bank for Afribank and not CBN.

According to the averment,  CBN and Sanusi acted in accordance with their statutory duties and in the interest of the public as they have the statutory duty to ensure monetary stability and to avert any imminent threat to the soundness of the financial system in the country.

The bank shareholders, dissatisfied with the revocation of Afribank licence, had prayed the court to  reverse the revocation on the ground that the action was a calculated attempt aimed at ridiculing the judiciary and to foist a fait accompli on a suit they filed in November 2009 to challenge the intervention of CBN in their bank.

According to the shareholders on April 15, 2011, Justice James Tsoho delivered a ruling, dismissing the separate preliminary objections to the suit by the CBN and other defendants, and assumed jurisdiction on the matter. The court also held that the CBN lacked the absolute power to sack bank directors without disclosing to such director the findings of the special examination conducted into the books of such bank.