UTOMI REFUTES ALLEGED FUNDING OF PRESIDENTIAL RACE WITH BANK PHB LOANS

CONTINUING his testimony Tuesday in the case of an alleged theft of N27.5 billion preferred against the former managing director of the defunct Bank PHB, Mr. Francis Atuche, and two others, renowned economist, Prof. Pat Utomi, refuted claims that he funded his campaign for the 2007 presidential election with loans from the defunct Bank PHB.
The former vice chairman of the bank’s board of directors told an Ikeja High Court, Lagos, presided by Justice Lateefat Okunnu that the total sum of his campaign expenditure was N30 million, as against the N2 billion being suggested by the prosecution.
Leading the prosecution, Kemi Pinheiro (SAN) had, on cross-examining Utomi over his earlier testimony at the ongoing trial of the bank’s former managing director, Francis Atuche, his wife, Elizabeth, and the bank’s former chief operating officer, Ugo Anyanwu, for alleged theft of N27.5 billion, suggested that his campaign was funded by the bank.
The prosecution had alleged that the bank advanced a N2 billion credit facility to Baywood Continental Limited, which board was chaired by Utomi. He further alleged that the loan was secured from Bank PHB within the same time Utomi was campaigning around the country for his presidential ambition.
However, Utomi, a former chairman of the bank’s Corporate Governance Committee, said that Baywood Continental never collected any loan from the bank. He explained that the company was actually indebted to Spring Bank Plc long before he became the chairman of the company and Spring Bank’s eventual acquisition by Bank PHB.
According to him, it was public knowledge that he never exceeded N30 million during his presidential campaign and would therefore amount to misconception that Baywood’s indebtedness to Spring Bank before its acquisition could be linked to his presidential campaign.
Asked whether the N17 billion cheque fraud that rocked the bank, which was one of the biggest Nigerian banks during Atuche’s era, over which the late President Umaru Musa Ya’Adua invited him and Atuche was of no consequence to the Nigeria economy, he said the interest expressed by Yar’Adua on the issue was personal, as there was an appropriate authority to handle it.
He also reiterated his earlier stand that Bank PHB was violently stolen from the owners by the powers that be, insisting that bank loans could be domiciled in neighbour-banks pending when they could be expended for the purpose of the credit facility.
The matter has been adjourned till September 20 for the prosecution to further cross-examine him on his earlier testimony. Utomi had, in his earlier evidence-in-chief led by Atuche’s counsel, Chief Anthony Idigbe (SAN), said the loans advanced during Atuche’s era, which formed part of the charges against him, were ratified by the board after proper scrutiny.
Source: Guardian