By Chisaa Okoye (Business reporter)
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) monitoring team, at the weekend arrested the Operation Manager of a branch of First City Monument Bank (FCMB) in Osogbo, the Osun State capital for alleged naira racketeering.
Also arrested were a Branch Service Head of Stanbic IBTC Bank and seven Point of Sale (POS) operators in Abuja and Osun State respectively. The Stanbic IBTC official, whose name was withheld was attached to the bank’s branch in Deidei, a suburb of Abuja.
Azuka Ogugua, a spokesperson for the ICPC said this in a statement on Friday.
Specifically, ICPC said the two bank officials were arrested for their deliberate refusal to upload cash into their banks’ Automated Teller Machines (ATM) even when the cash was available, and people were lined up for hours to withdraw cash from the ATMs.
According to the ICPC spokesperson, the FCMB official deliberately loaded cash bundles into the ATMs and as such, the ATM could not dispense because the money was still wrapped.
Despite that the bank official was directed by the Compliance Team during an earlier visit to the bank, to unwrap the money and load the cash appropriately, he refused to do so despite that people queued for long hours waiting to withdraw money.
When a follow-up visit was undertaken the following day to ascertain the level of compliance, the Team discovered that the ATMs were still loaded with unwrapped money, prompting them to arrest the Operation Manager.
Similarly, the commission said the branch service head of Stanbic IBTC Bank in Deidei, Abuja, was taken into custody over his “deliberate refusal to load cash into the branch’s ATMs even when the cash was available, and people queued at the ATMs points.
The statement added: “When the ICPC monitoring team stormed the bank at about 1:30 pm to ensure compliance and demanded an explanation as to why all the ATMs were not dispensing cash, it was informed by the branch’s Head of Operations that the bank just got delivery of the cash.
“However, facts available to the ICPC operatives indicated that the branch delivered the cash around 11:58 am and either willfully or maliciously refused to feed the ATMs with the money.
“Against this backdrop, the ICPC team compelled the bank to load the ATMs with the redesigned Naira notes and ensured that they were all dispensing before arresting the culprit.
Investigations are still ongoing, and the Commission will take appropriate actions as soon they are concluded.”