By Omoh Gabriel, Business Editor

CBN Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi said in Washington on Saturday that he has no doubt in his mind that all the former manager directors of the rescued banks facing trial in Nigeria will go to jail.

He said this while answering reporters’ question on the sentence passed on Mrs Cecilia Ibru former Managing Director of Oceanic Bank PLC.

He said “In each of those banks I know what I saw and I told you from the very first day that it was unbelievable but I know what I saw. And I have no doubts in my mind that each and every one of those people will go to jail. I have no doubts. They will go to jail this time”.

Those standing trial Sanusi expects to go to jail are Dr Erastus Akingbola, former Managing Director, Intercontinental bank PLC, Mr. Barth Ebong former Managing Director Union Bank, Okey Nwosu former Managing Director, Finbank and Mr. Sebestian Adigwe, former Managing Director Afribank. They are all being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial crime Commission EFCC after being sacked in August last year by the CBN.

CBN Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

Reacting to allegations that he connived with Dr. Saraki forcefully take over some of the rescued banks he said “But Lai Alabi himself has responded. Who are these directors? There was one executive director (Risk Management) who worked a long time ago in SGBN who after that was a Risk Officer in GTBank, who left Nigeria to go and work abroad who was sourced for Intercontinental Bank by HBSC, not by the Central Bank. So I don’t even know what the issue is! I mean having worked in SGBN many years ago does that make him a former SGBN staff? And then, what does that mean anyway? Of what relevance is that? The issue is that if you are charged with an offence, did you do or did you not do all those things? That is the important thing.

“ This is diversion and totally unnecessary. Just like the Renaissance Professionals, this has been going on for a very long time. Faces are just coming out. I have the same attitude, I don’t bother to respond. Anybody can make any allegation. These are legal and factual issues, it is either you did them or you did not.

“Honestly I think after the conviction of Ibru, we will be giving all the journalists the terms of settlement and I think many of your papers will carry the lists of assets that were confiscated. And when you have a list of 94 pieces of real estates in Nigeria, in Dubai, in the United States and in South Africa, when you have shares in about 100 companies that were taken, that are being forfeited, I will think that everybody, apart from the most unreasonable of human beings will accept that we had a reason for doing what we did.

“Where did we get the N191 billion? Did we manufacture it? And why is it being forfeited if it was not stolen? And what was I supposed to do as Central Bank Governor? In each of those banks I know what I saw and I told you from the very first day that it was unbelievable but I know what I saw. And I have no doubts in my mind that each and every one of those people will go to jail. I have no doubts. They will go to jail this time”.

“Everybody we are trying for criminal charges will go to jail. You can put it as headlines. I have no doubts. Maybe you don’t want me to say it in the open because it could be sub-judice. But I really have no doubts about that. Basically what this has done is to say that the game has changed. It is not about individuals, for me the legal process continues and I am looking more at the banks and the institution.

“Nobody has prescribed any number of months in hospital. You have someone facing a trial; the doctor says she has a strong medical condition, and the judge says we’ll convict you. The Prisons Services have a way anyway even if you were a common criminal or blue collar crime or whatever you call it. You go into the prison and you are taking out for medical treatment if you need medical treatment, and you will be out of the prison for as long as you need medical treatment and you go back to the prison when you don’t need to be in hospital. So I don’t think anyone has prescribed the number of months she would spend in hospital.

“If you have a one-year sentence and you need to be in hospital for three months, you go to hospital, get your surgery and you don’t leave the hospital, you’re in confinement in hospital you don’t go to parties, you don’t drive around, you’re covered by prison warders, you’re in prison custody.

“I don’t think anybody has ever said Ibru was going to spend four months in hospital. But on the general issue of six months, you know Nigerians are very interesting a lot. Two weeks ago, the noise was that we had not convicted anyone, that it was all noise, and that nobody was going to jail, that they were walking free. Now, you get a conviction, and the noise is that it is only six months (general laughter). It is not an ideal sentence, but look at what is the counter factual. You go through a legal process, you go to the court of first instance, you go to the Court of Appeal, you go to the Supreme Court and that might take a number of years.

“At the end of that period, some of the assets that you have gotten may have disappeared, they may have lost value because they’ve not been in use for years, you don’t get anything out of it. You run all the risks of huge legal expenditure.

“I have no doubts in my mind that we have enough evidence to convict everyone that we have charged. It is just that it can take a long time. Now in every part of the world, if someone does what might be called the honourable thing as it were to say look, I don’t want to stay four, five years in this trial, I put up my hands and admit that I have committed an offence, let’s draw a line under this.

“I will take some punishments; I agree to forfeiture, it happens everywhere; you get a benefit of saving the state expenses and saving everybody the trauma of going to court for another three, four months. I think what Ibru has done in spite of all the circumstances is 100 times better than those who are complaining they did nothing and that they were just being victimised and creating all sorts of stories.

The second thing is that a little over a year ago when we removed Mrs. Ibru, the story was that it was not possible, it would not last. When we started the trial, it was that in Nigeria it is not possible to lock up a chief executive officer. For the very fact that people who are rich, people who are powerful and politically connected are getting this kind of thing is a plus for our country.