The Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of Zenith, Providus, and Jaiz Banks have been apprehended by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) amid a sweeping investigation into an embezzlement scheme linked to former and current Ministers of Humanitarian Affairs, Betta Edu and Sadiya Umar-Farouk, Politics Nigeria has gathered.
The affected CEOs are Dr. Ebenezer Onyeagwu (Zenith Bank), Haruna Musa (Jaiz Bank), and Walter Akpani (Providus Bank).
Multiple high-level sources within the Presidency, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the arrests on Tuesday.
These banking executives, long suspected of facilitating the improper diversion of public funds into private accounts, are now facing the music within the confines of EFCC custody.
The anti-graft agency is dissecting a web of suspicious transactions involving hefty sums of public money funnelled into private accounts, allegedly approved by Dr. Edu and Farouq leveraging their ministerial positions.
Ms. Farouq, who led the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs under the previous administration of Muhammadu Buhari, is additionally accused of mismanagement of N37 billion earmarked for the conditional cash transfer program during President Buhari’s tenure.
The sources revealed that a potential deliberate lapse in flagging suspicious activity by the banks – a crucial responsibility mandated by anti-financial crime laws and Central Bank directives – played a critical role in this brazen misappropriation of public funds.
Attempts to obtain comments from the detained CEOs’ respective banks on the matter did not yield immediate results.
