First Bank Plc Turns Safe Haven For Looters and Fraudsters*** As Shareholders Call For Removal Of Managing Director, Bisi Onasanya

Gone are the days when First Bank Plc used to be described as the oldest and most reliable financial institution in Nigeria.

This is because in recent times the financial institution has allegedly been involved in various forms of scandalous activities, especially by aiding and abating corrupt public office holders to amass wealth, forgetting the popular saying that “a good name is better than Silver and Gold.”

The bank, is currently enmeshed in a new crisis, as it has been indicted in the ongoing $1.6M armoured car crisis involving Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah, having transferred the funds for the payment of the cars.

The question begging for answer is why is it that First Bank Plc is always in the middle of corruption, corrupt individual and scam related deals.

In recent times, allegations of fraud that has been levied against First Bank Plc includes how the bank hide N21 billion out of the N24B stolen by officials of Pension Office using falsified documents.

In another development, the name of the bank appeared in a suit file at
Bayelsa State High Court sitting in Yenagoa, where Justice Kate Abiri, granted an interim order stopping further deduction of N300M monthly from Bayelsa State Account based on the ISPO signed between the administration of former Governor Timipre Sylva and the SNECOU Group of Companies Limited over undisclosed services rendered since 2007.

Justice Kate Abiri, in her ruling, stopped the state government and First Bank Plc from paying N300M monthly to SNECOU Group of Companies Limited, suspected to be
owned by the former governor.

The account which First Bank Plc was alleged to have fraudulently credited was tagged Bayelsa State Government Consolidated Revenue Fund Account and the N300M monthly payment which the bank allegedly benefited from lasted between June 2007 to February 2011, via a First Bank Plc Account No: 4112040000417

The series of frauds that has been going on in the bank has since made First Bank Plc to be tagged a looters haven. Effort to reach First Bank Plc’s Head Corporate Communication and Marketing, Mrs. Folake Ani-Mumuney proved abortive, as a text message sent to her was not replied.