CBN removes Omoyeni as Wema MD - Names new acting MD

Lanre Oyetade, Sulaimon Olanrewaju and Odidison Omankhanlen,
Lagos - 05.09.2008

THE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Thursday removed Mr. Adebisi Omoyeni as Managing Director of Wema Bank Plc and appointed Mr. Layi Alabi as the new acting Managing Director.

Until his new appointment, Alabi was an Executive Director with Union Bank of Nigeria Plc. A statement from CBN said Mr. John Aboh would hand over the affairs of the bank to the new acting Managing Director on Monday.

Two new executive directors were also appointed for the bank. They are Mrs. Christy Okoye and Mr. Iliya Dauda Rapu Ndirpaya. Earlier on Thursday, Omoyeni was arrested by the police at the premises of the bank’s head office.

Reports, however, said he was released after hours of interrogation. When contacted, the Lagos State Police Public Relations office (PPRO), Mr. Frank Mba, said men of the command were not involved in the arrest and that what was happening in the bank was an internal problem.

He added that the police could only intervene when there was a breach of public law and order. Nigerian Tribune gathered that Omoyeni, who only returned to office on Tuesday after an eight-month suspension, was arrested at the instance of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) which accused him of not meeting the conditions agreed upon at the stakeholders meeting in Abuja on July 20.

Confirming this development on the telephone, Wema Bank’s Head of Corporate Communications, Mr. Tunde Olofintila, said Omoyeni was arrested after CBN’s intervention to resolve the bank’s crisis on the grounds of non-compliance with some of the conditions stipulated at the recent stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja .

A top officer of the bank who pleaded anonymity told the Nigerian Tribune that plainclothes policemen had mounted an early morning surveillance at the bank’s head office on Marina, Lagos Island. When Omoyeni alighted from his car to enter the office complex, he was promptly arrested.

The source further said that attempts by Omoyeni to make telephone calls were resisted by the policemen. It will be recalled that the CBN’s spokesman, Mr. Festus Odoko, had told Nigerian Tribune on Wednesday that the apex bank had no hand in the return to duty of Omoyeni, saying it was a negation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed at the stakeholders’ forum on August 20 in Abuja.

The apex bank also stated that Omoyeni ignored the letter written to him by CBN’s Director of Banking Supervision, Mr. Ignatius Imala, on August 30, not to resume duty last Monday until he had withdrawn all the cases he instituted and served the CBN the notices of withdrawal.

Some of the terms of the agreement signed at the all party meeting in Abuja include: the withdrawal of all the six cases relating to the present crisis by all parties who initiated them, on or before 29th of August and copies of the notices of discontinuance delivered to the CBN. So far, it is only O’dua Group that is said to have complied with the directive.

Another clause is that two nominees (non-executive directors) of Odu’a shall take their positions on the board of Wema Bank while three independent executive directors shall be appointed by the CBN from outside the South West to strengthen the bank’s management team. The independent executive directors are expected to serve for between three and four months.