IBRU: EFCC Set To Seize Properties In Dubai

SACKED MD OF OCEANIC BANK, CECILIA IBRU.

As Oceanic Bank Plc Sack 1500 Workers

Lagos (THEWILL) - A source at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has confirmed that the commission is making plans to confiscate properties in Dubai traced to Mrs. Cecilia Ibru, sacked managing director of Oceanic Bank Plc.

The Central Bank Governor Lamido Sanusi had told an audience during a speech at the Honourary International Investor Council (HIIC) event in November that the CBN had found some properties in Dubai belonging to a sacked bank managing director.

EFCC spokesperson Femi Babafemi was unavailable to confirm the report, but another EFCC source maintained that the properties were bought while she was at the helm of affairs at the bank.

The real estate assets, which are twenty-eight in number are located in at the ‘International City’, a luxury real estate development located in the Al Warsan region of Dubai, UAE.

The EFCC intends to secure an order from the court to enable it seize the properties the source added.

Last week, Justice Dan Abutu of a Federal High Court in Lagos granted Mrs. Ibru permission to travel abroad for two weeks for medicals. She is expected back in court on January 26, 2010. The EFCC said it has complied with the court order but would keep her under surveillance.

Meanwhile, Oceanic Bank Plc on Monday sacked one thousand five hundred of its employees in defiance of a Federal Government directive warning against a mass lay-off of staff.

Investigations reveal that the sack cut across all management levels of the bank. Analysts see the move as a cost saving measure aimed at stabilizing the bank.

Another bailed-out bank Intercontinental Bank Plc fired about a similar number of staff over the weekend.