The House of Representatives ad-hoc committee investigating the status of all recovered loots, movable and immovable assets from 2002-2020 has threatened to issue a warrant of arrest against the Managing Director of Polaris Bank, Mr. Innocent Ike.
The House committee issued the threat over the failure of the bank chief to appear before it to account for over $32 million unremitted to the federation account.
Chairman of the committee, Adejoro Adeogun, expressed displeasure over the non-appearance of the Managing Director of the bank.
Adeogun at the resumed hearing said the Accountant General of the Federation, NNPC, Polaris, Unity, Sterling, Heritage, Keystone and Fidelity banks were invited to appear before the panel.
It all started when the Head of Legal Services of Polaris announced his appearance for the bank before the committee instead of the Managing Director, a development which outraged the lawmakers.
A visibly angry Adeogun said: “You can’t stand for Polaris. We can’t stand your falsehood; your bank has been constantly failing to appear before this committee. You can’t keep government funds and you will be playing games with it.
“NNPC has written to us that they have not received the remittance. You can’t speak for your bank. If your bank continues with this level of unseriousness, I will issue an arrest warrant against the MD,” he said.
However, the Polaris’ representative told the committee that the bank has tendered evidence of payment to the CBN.
But Adejoro countered the bank’s claim saying, “You did not tender any evidence, you wrote letters to NNPC saying that you have directed CBN to make payments. Directing CBN does not mean you have paid the money. You directed CBN to use your reserve and if they make that payment from your reserve, it will fall below the regulatory requirements and so, CBN has rejected your advice.
“If you keep acting like you are bigger than the National Assembly, we will issue a warrant of arrest against your MD. I think we are getting to that.
“We don’t accept this gentleman’s representation and we are going to adjourn your (Polaris) hearing to Wednesday next week. Get your MD to come. You are owing $32 million; this money is supposed to be remitted to the federation account to fund the 2022 budget and you can’t continue to hold on to federal government’s money. You have between now and Wednesday next week to appear here with evidence of payment, not instructions to CBN that has not been honoured,” Adejoro said
Also speaking, the Chief Financial Officer of NNPC told the committee that Polaris is still owing over 32 million dollars.
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