The Leadership Newspaper has reported that a sum amounting to about N2.1billion of newly printed N1,000 notes have gone missing and remains unexplained. This is what was reported on the Leadership newspaper page.
The board of directors of
the Nigeria Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPMC) met yesterday over
the scandal that rocked the establishment where it was revealed that a whopping
N2.1 billion of newly printed N1,000 notes have mysteriously gone missing.
The board meeting, chaired
by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, decided to
expand the investigation and audit the production of other currency
denominations to ascertain the quantity of money that has actually gone missing
over the years.
LEADERSHIP had exclusively
reported that an acting managing director, Ahmed Bamali, had been appointed to
head the Mint company while Ehi Okomoyon, who was the chief executive, was
asked to proceed on indefinite leave.
A source with insider
knowledge of what transpired at the meeting told LEADERSHIP that the suspension
of Okoyomon as managing director on an indefinite basis until all investigations
have been concluded was reaffirmed.
The head of security at the
NSPMC, Emmanuel Bala, has also been asked to go on compulsory leave by the
board of directors of the company. The general manager, management services,
Obi Igoban is expected to write him the letter of suspension today.
LEADERSHIP also gathered
that the board faulted the suspended MD for failing to disclose to it that such
amounts of money had gone missing even though the company had set up an
internal investigation after a mint staff was arrested in Lagos for being in
possession of unnumbered bank notes.
The board meeting, which
reportedly started at about 10am, did not end until 3pm. Other than the initial
audit report, the board also discussed routine and budgetary issues.
The CBN had to set up its
own audit team, whose findings were put to the board yesterday, and a unanimous
vote affirmed that Okoyomon should continue on indefinite suspension.
Part of the CBN audit
team’s investigation is to unravel why the management of the Mint company has
consistently refused to place Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) in its Abuja and
Lagos factories, and why other security measures were deliberately set aside.
The audit team had,
however, established that the theft of printed bank notes could be traced to
security lapses and security personnel who take custody of newly printed bank
notes, and when there were shortages, they were never reprimanded. The entire
security department is said to be directly under the supervision of MD.
LEADERSHIP also learnt that
this would be the second time that Okoyomon would be going on suspension as he
suffered a similar experience in 2007 for three months when Charles Soludo, who
had appointed him in the first place, was CBN governor.
After seven and a half years on the job,
Okoyomon has been the longest serving MD of the NSPMC, with previous chief
executives spending an average of five years in office.