General
Sanusi persecuted me because he thought I wanted to be CBN governor, Cecilia Ibru speaks 10 years after
Former Managing Director of the defunct Oceanic Bank, Mrs Cecilia Ibru, has ascribed her ordeal in the banking sector to personal vendetta by the then Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mallam Lamido Sanusi.
She said she was persecuted by Sanusi because he thought she was also gunning to become CBN governor.
Recall that barely two months after assuming office as the then CBN governor in 2009, Sanusi sacked the Managing Director/Chief Executives and Executive Directors of five banks namely, Afribank PLC, Finbank PLC, Intercontinental Bank Plc, Oceanic Bank Plc and Union Bank Plc.
Sanusi said the banks officials were removed due to high level of non performing loans in the five banks which was attributable to poor corporate governance practices, lax credit administration processes and the absence or non-adherence to the banks credit risk management practices.
In 2010, Ibru was convicted and sentenced to six months in prison for fraud and ordered to hand over $1.2 billion in cash and assets, after pleading guilty to charges.
In an interview with The Punch, Ibru said though she was offered the position of the CBN governor, she turned it down because she needed to be with her husband (now late), who was undergoing treatment at a hospital in London.
She also accused Sanusi of withdrawing her personal driver and security shortly after she was removed from office.
Asked what could have been the basis of the competition between her and the then CBN governor, Ibru said,
“He (Sanusi) thought I wanted his job but I didn’t. I was offered the position, but I said no.
“My husband was sick and I needed to be with him. That was the reason, and I didn’t think much about it anymore.
“I was planning to retire in March of the following year to go and stay with my husband. When he (Sanusi) was appointed, I congratulated him.
“He even told me at that time they had not given him a letter and I told him not to worry that it would come.”
Ibru who said she felt betrayed by people she had thought would come to her aid during her ordeal, but didn’t show up, however, said she had since forgiven those who put her through the ordeal.
She said,
“I have forgiven them already because they didn’t know that they were simply promoting me. I run a university now and it is exciting impacting lives.”
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