By Gift Chapi Odekina
The House of Representatives has asked Keystone bank to reconcile 13 and 18 million dollars the bank is said to owe the Federal Government.
The Chairman of the ad hoc committee on Assessment and Status of All Recovered Loots Movable and Immovable Assets from 2002 to 2020 by Agencies of the Federal Government of Nigeria for Effective Efficient Management and Utilisation, gave the order during an investigative hearing with Keystone bank and other banks at the National Assembly.
Speaking to the comiittee on the said amount, the Executive Director, North and Public Sector Directorate, Keystone Bank, Lawal Ahmed while giving the position of the bank said “as confirmed by the CFO of NNPC, was that we have remitted all the funds that were with us at our last meeting. You asked for clarification regarding some reversals from the statements of account, which we reviewed and confirmed that they were actually failed transactions. We are using NEFT. We sent the money, it reversed and it was sent again. So, it was showing in and out on the statements. It was part of the documents that we submitted. You asked for where we got the rates and we provided the letter from the Attorney-General of the Federation directing us to make the payment and the rate with which to transfer. We also submitted that with our letter.
Adeogun asked how much is the total amount Keystone was supposed to return to the NNPC. The representative said the total figure established by the AGF was $136,676,600.51.
Giving a breakdown of the figure, Ahmed said, “Out of this entire amount, we paid in $96m in United States dollar and we paid the equivalent of $40m in naira. That was the directive by the Attorney-General at the rate of N305 to a dollar. The schedule is also attached.
Adeogun said, “The $136m was supposed to be for Brass LNG Investment Account but when you were paying, you paid into a different account.”
Responding, Ahmed said, “We were paying into the Brass LNG’s NNPC account in the TSA and at the time the Attorney-General gave the directive, he instructed that the funds be credited to the FGN Assets Recovery Account.”
Adeogun then showed a letter from the CBN to the Keystone Bank representative to see the differences in the details given to the committee.
After reading the document, Ahmed argued that there were no discrepancies in the exchange rates as recorded in the CBN and Keystone’s documents.
“The first item, which is N12,421,794,504.88 is the equivalent of $40m at N305, which was directed to the FGN Assets Recovery Account. There were two accounts: there was the Brass LNG and there was OML 40. At the time this (AGF) letter was written, I believe that we had not concluded payment yet. The final payments were made thereafter in tranches,” he said.
Not satisfied, Adeogun insisted that each of the two parties should be paid what is due to them. “You could see there; you paid $18m to a different person. So, we cannot accept that the payment to that other party is part of this payment (to the first party),” he said.
Ahmed, however, noted that the bank was duly advised on which account was to be paid into.
Again, Adeogun asked, “Who instructed that you should pay money meant for (Brass) NLG to a different entity?”
Responding, Ahmed said, “I stand to be corrected but I believe that the instruction to pay would have come either from the NNPC or the CBN.”
Adeogun stated that the committee would not count the $18m payment to be part of the remittance to (Brass) NLG.
He said, “Right now, we have two issues in contention: $18m that was wrongly paid, which we don’t know where it is, and as long as that cannot be determined, it means the $18m is missing; and you need to prove that you paid the $13m. What we would do is to adjourn your own hearing for that purpose until you are able to give us evidence.”
However, a member of the committee, Olanrewaju Edun, said, “Out of the $40m that you claimed that the Attorney-General gave you a letter…as far as I am concerned, I don’t know why you have to take a letter from the Attorney-General. This is Nigeria’s money owned by the three tiers of government. We can take you up on that.”
While Ahmed asked Keystone if the bank should disregard a letter from the AGF, Edun said “that is contentious” and that the committee would get to issue.
The lawmaker asked how much Keystone had paid out of the $40m at the N305 exchange rate, Ahmed said all, restating that the AGF recommended the rate.
Edun said, “Mr Chairman, I believe that my constituency has been robbed of money. Yes. And we need to contest that letter. I don’t know why the Attorney-General had to issue a letter that something that was transacted in dollars should be paid in naira rate when you have differential rates in Nigeria. You have one that is official and one that is outside (black) market. That is a lot of money, and this money belongs to the three tiers of government. There is a need to subject the Attorney-General to questioning in this case.”
Adeogun said, “I think I need to rule on two issues: the first one has to do with the $13m which we have agreed that Keystone is going to clarify and the $18m. So, we are saying that about $31m of our money, we need to reconcile it.”
Members of the committee also asked to see the letter that the AGF wrote to Keystone, while Adeogun stated that the matter as it concerned Malami would be revisited at the appropriate time.
Edun said, “The contention is this: if you (Keystone) owe a particular value, why was it that you were asked to pay a part in dollars and another part in naira equivalent; the money that belongs to the three tiers of government? The meaning is that your bank is using that money at a value against the interest of Nigerians.”
Chairman of the committee, however, called for calm, saying, “Those are the internal affairs of government. We are on the government side. I think we can call the government official and reconcile that. Even if all they (Keystone) had to do was to lobby to get it done, lobbying is allowed in banking. So, we should not crucify them for that.”
Speaking on all the committees engagement with various banks, Adeogun said “I spoke with the MD of Heritage Bank; we are aware of his situation. We got a correspondence from Fidelity whose MD is also hospitalised.
For Starling bank, he said “there is a letter from Sterling Bank. We sent a letter to the CBN in respect of Polaris, because we think the issues are straightforward and we are trying to deal with that as soon as possible.
“We won’t be able to do anything until we get that response from the CBN. NNPC is not here. We can solve the problem is the CBN can intervene. We have actually at our own side tried to get the CBN to intervene and resolve the issues involving Heritage Bank, Polaris and NNPC.
“We have responsibilities to Nigerians and we are trying to manage these relationships in a good way. What we want to do at this stage is to create a roundtable for issues to be resolved. The NNPC has agreed to it. For Heritage Bank, we have already sent them a proposal.
In his response, Directorate Head for Abuja and Northern Business, Heritage Bank, George Akwobo said “We sent a proposal and we have also started making payments as we speak. We made a proposal to the CFO (of the NNPC) proposing a monthly repayment of $250,000.
“However, once we can improve on it, we would begin to make bulk payment. While we are doing that, we have done two tranches of that and we have also processed an additional $500,000. We don’t intend to have the repayment plan take more than half of next year because our fall-back plan actually should be finalised by the end of the first quarter of next year. We made the proposal and we have stuck to it.
When asked if he was aware that the NNPC was not comfortable with the plan, Akwobo said, “That was why we had to increase the payment. At least, we did another one on Monday and today we also did another $500,000.”
Akwobo added, “So, like we explained in our letter, we don’t intend to wait. As soon as we have enough funding, we will continue to make payments accordingly. I also had a discussion with the CFO and the GGM yesterday.
In his ruling, Adeogun said, “You need to sit with the NNPC. We need to have evidence that you have reached a truce. I am aware that there is a conversation going on between you and them. Ours is to ensure that it is completed.”
