We are not aware of Omoyeni’s reinstatement - CBN, Wema Bank

Lanre Oyetade, Group Business Editor - 12.03.2008

Both the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and sources within Wema Bank Plc have denied reports carried by a national newspaper (not the Nigerian Tribune) that the erstwhile Group Managing Director of Wema Bank Plc, Adebisi Omoyeni, had been ordered restored to his position by the Federal Government.

Speaking with the Nigerian Tribune in a telephone interview on Tuesday, spokesman for CBN, Festus Odoko, said he was not aware of such a development, insisting that there was no way such a thing could have happened without him having the information.

“I doubt the report, as I have not heard anything in that line,” Odoko stated.

When contacted, the spokesperson for Wema Bank Plc, Tunde Olofintila, said he was out of town on an unofficial assignment and could neither confirm nor deny the report.

However, a source within the bank, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said such a thing could not be true, as the management of Wema Bank had not been directed by the apex bank.

“That report is not likely to be true for, as I speak to you, the acting Group Managing Director of Wema Bank, John Aboh, is representing the bank at the Bankers’ Committee meeting in Lagos today in his capacity as its chief executive. Such news cannot be true,” he said.

Adebisi Omoyeni was sent on compulsory leave from the bank early last month by the CBN on the ground that he was obstructing the panel of investigators from the NDIC from having unhindered access to the bank’s records, as required to assess the true financial position of the bank, and John Aboh, then an executive director at First Bank of Nigeria Plc, appointed to act as the chief executive of the bank.