First City Monument Bank has denied reports that N573million was deposited into the account of Pastor Godwin Omale, of Divine Hand of God Prophetic Ministries, an ally of the suspended chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu.
Magu has been suspended by President Muhammadu Buhari following investigations into his tenure as the acting chairman of the EFCC.
A few days ago, the media was awash with reports that the Managing Director of FCMB, Mr. Adam Nuru told the Justice Ayo Salami led panel probing Magu that the N573million deposited into Pastor Omale’s account four years ago, was discovered to be an error.
But in a statement signed by the bank’s Group Head, Corporate Affairs, Diran Olojo, he said there was no such deposit at any time into the said account.
“Our Managing Director clarified to the Presidential panel that the system generated report was incorrect and that there was no mistaken transfer of N573 million.”
Read the full statement below:
Our attention has been drawn to widely circulating stories incorrectly stating that our Managing Director, during a recent presidential hearing in Abuja, testified that the bank mistakenly transferred N573m to the account of a church and the said error was not discovered for 4 years. We feel it is in the public interest to state emphatically that there was no transfer of N573m into this account, mistakenly or otherwise.
To provide further clarity, during a maintenance upgrade of our systems in 2016, a defective file led to the aggregation of multiple unrelated entries into a single balance under the affected customer’s name in one of our reports. This aggregation occurred only in the weekly automated report to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit. It had no effect on any customer account balance or statements and therefore was not immediately identified. Our Managing Director clarified to the Presidential panel that the system generated report was incorrect and that there was no mistaken transfer of N573 million. He also submitted comprehensive documentary evidence to this effect.
We appreciate that comments may have been misconstrued and therefore believe it is important to emphatically clarify the position that there was no mistaken transfer whatsoever, as stated above. FCMB continues to fully cooperate with the panel and has been entirely transparent in its reporting. We remain committed to ethical and professional conduct at all times.