The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) stormed Sterling Bank’s Abuja headquarters, discovering N258 million stashed in the bank’s vaults amid the nation’s ongoing cash shortage.
The anti-graft agency’s spokesperson, Azuka Ogugua, announced the burst in a statement on Tuesday.
The money, all new naira notes, according to the ICPC, was discovered in the vault of Sterling Bank.
Ogugua said:
Operatives of ICPC discovered the sum of Two Hundred and Fifty-Eight Million Naira (N258m) stashed in the vault at the head office of Sterling Bank in Abuja.
According to her, the money was released for distribution by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), but Sterling Bank only released N5 million to each of their various branches.
She stated that both the Regional and Service managers were arrested and later released on administrative bail while the investigation was ongoing.
According to the ICPC official, the Commission has also arrested the Head of Operations at Keystone Bank in Mararaba, Nasarawa State, for frustrating its customers’ ability to obtain the new Naira notes.
She stated that the ICPC team discovered that the branch’s Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) were not dispensing to its customers, while other bank customers could only access One Thousand Naira.
It was only after the arrest was made and clarification received from CBN that the position of the officers of the Bank was not correct, that the ATMs started dispensing Five Thousand Naira to non-customers and Ten Thousand Naira to its customers, she said.