By Ola Ajayi
Ibadan—Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, has said he would apply for an order of Mandamus to force the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to investigate the deposit and loans granted by former governors of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to some banks in the country.
Falana, who stated this at a dinner organised by the executives of Senior Staff Club of University of Ibadan, who celebrated one of their members recently appointed by the Federal Government, said the loan ran into trillions of naira from 2006 to 2011.
According to him, it is important to know whether the money has been paid back to the treasury since the Federal Government claims the country is broke. To him, it is unacceptable to say the country is broke when monies given out as loans or deposits are not accounted for, noting that the EFCC must probe, recover the funds and prosecute anybody found culpable.
According to Falana, while a former Central Bank governor gave out $7 billion to 14 banks in 2006 without going through the parliament, another CBN governor, now an Emir, allegedly gave out $5 billion and in 2011, reportedly paid “N2.5 trillion to economic saboteurs while all that was appropriated by the parliament was N245 billion. He said: “This university used to be one of the greatest in Africa and as matter of fact, in the 70s and 80s, it was the University of Ibadan radical scholars that subjected any idea from the seat of power to critical analysis.
“Unfortunately, that is no longer the case and I think we must bring back the lost glory of this university. Right now, neo-liberal scholars and agents of imperialism are calling the shots in our country. ‘’I expect the University of Ibadan to join issues with the government to know whether we are really broke or we are talking about a case of gross mismanagement of our resources.” “Please join us in an ongoing struggle by the Akotiletas in our country to sell whatever is left of our national assets, including the most lucrative business in Africa today, the LNG which has generated $33.2 billion.”
