By Taye Obateru

Jos— Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, yesterday, admitted that some members of management of the bank failed to take action despite knowing the irregularities going on in banks.

He said this while delivering a lecture to Senior Executive Course 32 members of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPPS, Kuru, Plateau State.

He said there was ample evidence that junior officer and the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation documented the situation in the banks but the warnings were ignored by the then management.

He said those concerned would not go scot free as the CBN would in due course, sanction its erring workers.

According to him, “as credit levels rose and stock prices inflated, the CBN failed to halt this vicious circle and foresee the consequences. The CBN did not highlight or failed to communicate the problems to fiscal authorities and the market in general.

“The sad story in all this is that we now have evidence that junior officers in the CBN did document their concerns to CBN management at that time, but no action was taken.”

He stressed the need for laws governing the banking industry to be expanded to make for effective supervision adding, “in this regard, the review of the governing laws which is not elaborate enough and limit the conduct of comprehensive and consolidated supervision of the entities as well as the groups is a challenge that is yet to be surmounted.”

Sanusi reiterated that the CBN management under him would ensure that all bank directors, debtors and their insider collaborators who contributed to the present situation go to jail and that the reforms would outlive the present management.

He also explained that the non-executive directors of banks whose executive directors  were kicked out, were spared because most of them were ignorant of what the executive director were doing.