One of the big financial institutions in Nigeria has been fingered in a multi-million Dollar fraud, which some forces have been accused of trying to sweep under the carpet.
The bank, First Bank, has been accused of being involved in a fund amounting to over $76 million supposedly kept with the Central Bank of Nigeria and purportedly under the control of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has been siphoned out for unapproved and unauthorized expenses and budgets.
SocietyGists.com reports that the fund, which is in excess of N11 billion, has been spent over different contracts awarded by the Minister of Aviation Mrs Stella Oduah and the Managing Director of FAAN, George Uriesi without following due process, no approval of the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), no due process certificate issued, and no federal Executive Council approval.
These spending were neither budgeted nor appropriated in the 2012 Budget passed by the National Assembly, had no Federal Executive Council Approval and did not comply with the spending limits allowed by the delegated financial authority of the Government.
It could be recalled that Stella Oduah was disgraced out of office over alleged abuse of office and misappropriation of funds amounting to billions of naira, when she was still a minister.
Ms Oduah, was alleged to have used First Bank many times to perfect her financial misappropriation.
Funds in the BASA account was split into private accounts of contractors and some parastatals under the Federal Ministry of Aviation, in which Bisi Onasanya led First Bank of Nigeria is also a major beneficiary amongst other banks.
Now that the $76million has been diverted and spent, the Federal Ministry of Aviation has now devised a new method to further divert and spend all the current BASA income of over $80million received from the foreign airlines operating into Nigeria.
For instance the payments by airlines such as Lufthansa, British Airways, Emirates etc amounted to over $80million are now being diverted. This alarming situation of complete depletion of the BASA fund without any appropriation from the National Assembly or approval from the Presidency or Federal Executive Council or Bureau for Public Procurement is worrisome.
We reached out to Mrs Folake Anny-Mumuney, the Head Marketing and Corporate Communications department of the financial institution but she refused to reply to our messages before publishing the story.
