‘I have about 400 cases in court against banks with over N150billion recoverable against them’ -Popular Forensic Accountant, Adeyemo.

Mr. Ori Adeyemo is the Managing Consultant of Forensic Consulting that specializes in investigating accounting, litigation support, taxation, management consulting and training. In this interview, the fearless practical accountant speaks on what has been happening in the banking industry, even with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which should be the monitors of the banks. He spoke on issues affecting our economy and the banking industry, especially about how the operators of the banks have been allegedly defrauding the government of Nigeria with the collaboration of the CBN. Adeyemo calls for the sack of CBN Governor, Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, who he said has performed woefully with what he called “CBN’s Many Failed Policies”

Q, Where’s the borderline between auditing and forensic accounting?

A, There is a very strong clear cut. With auditing there are standards, what I mean by standards is that there are procedures in doing the job and in reporting it, but in forensic accounting, there is no standard and there cannot be any. Basically what forensic accounting is all about is investigation. What an auditor will believe, a forensic accountant is trained not to believe anything. Even if you talk from Nigeria to Jericho, a forensic accountant will not believe you until he’s able to prove to himself that you’re correct. A forensic account employs all manners of skills which are outside accounting and more into law, technology and ICT. Even native intelligence is required in carrying out his job but for an
auditor, there are rules and procedures either in doing the job or reporting it.
But in forensic accounting, it is like; ‘base on my investigation from the
document before me, these people said that they bought this car for N10million
and I went to the market and found out that a brand new one goes for
N8miliion’. An auditor would ordinarily take the N10million invoice you gave to him and accept whereas a forensic accountant goes beyond sighting of the invoice, he does in-depth investigation to confirm every issue in the transaction. So, it’s a different ball game, forensic accounting is a relatively new concept and as a forensic accountant you must have it at the
back of your mind that 90% of the job you take will end up in court either
civil or criminal.

Q, Do you advise your clients sometimes to settle out of court and how many of such cases have you made progress with?

A, Conservatively speaking, I should have about 400 cases in court against banks with over N150billion recoverable against them. I understand the nature of the banking practice in Nigeria because it is packaged the interest of the customers but to annihilate the
customers’ interest and business. That is the essence of banking in Nigeria.
There’s an interest to defraud the customers. After manipulating the customers’ accounts against the basic fundamental terms and conditions of the purported contracts and begin to act unilaterally thereby building spurious debts against customers by playing on the ignorance of the customers, these same banks will now begin to use the instrumentality of coercion, extortion, police, EFCC and even court to force the customer to submission.

Q, What should be a bank’s ultimate aim, is it the security of the customers money or to shut down the customers’ business so that the bank can now convert everything to its own?

A, That is what banking system is in Nigeria and for someone like me who knows, they don’t expect me to keep quiet. Back to your question on settling out of court, the case is not my own, I’ve never taken any credit facility from any bank before. It is the decision of the customer to go to court and it is also the decision of the customer whether to withdraw or not. Mine is to investigate and show the customer that this is how much the bank has stolen from your account. This is how much I want to recover for the customer. I’m not aware that any customer is indebted to any bank in this country, that is not to say that I’m not aware that customers borrow from bank. But one thing is that there’s a distinction in borrowing money from a bank and being indebted to that bank. There’s a very wide gap in this situation. I’m aware of the principles as it refers to legality and illegality of contracts. So, when a bank forms a contract illegally and performs it illegally, the bank is without remedy

Q, What’s your view on CBN’s new cashless policy?

A, Let me be frank with you, this thing cannot work in this country for now. And in my petition to Mr. President last month, my position is that if at all that has to be done, it has to be optional just like in every part of the world. This is so because you cannot do a purported cashless policy without putting the infrastructure in place. No power, no adequate P.O.S. machines, no training for those who are going to handle it, there’s no security in the country and then the network to carry it is also an issue. It’s all very epileptic so to speak. With the fraudulent nature and the porous state of the banking industry, even there’s so much insecurity in the system of the bank itself. It was last year I wrote a petition against the cashless policy to Mr. President and my arguments there were very simple. Sanusi said he made the policy in conjunction with one unknown body, they call themselves Bankers’ Committee. So, when I did my research, I realized that they’re people unknown to law, it’s just an assemblage of fat-cat bankers. Some rascals who call themselves bankers who have been stealing the Federal and State Government money and customers’ money and living large thereon at the expense of the Nigerian economy, they’re the same people who have been killing Nigerian economy systematically over time. When I went through the books, I found out that this Bankers’ Committee is not known to the law. My first argument is that why would Sanusi make a purported policy with an illegal body called Bankers’ Committee? These are people who he ought to supervising yet he’s making laws with them instead of him to give orders. According to Sanusi, he said one cannot make any withdrawal from an individual account in excess of N150,000 and that for anything in excess of that, the individual would pay a penalty of 10%. Then if it’s from a corporate account, you cannot make cash withdrawal in excess of N1million and that anything in excess of that amount cumulatively would attract 20% penalty per day. I went through the 1999 constitution as amended in 2011, I found out that the only authority that has the power to fine and punishment on any Nigerian is a court of competent jurisdiction. So, I began to wonder when the banks or CBN becomes the court of competent jurisdiction. I have gone through the CBN’s establishment Acts of 2007, CBN does not have any power, either absolute or residual to make such law. Another argument is that; before you can say that Banks should issue any punishment on a customer, there has to be a law enacted by the National Assembly. There’s no such law, is Sanusi telling me that he has now become the National Assembly? Is he telling me that he’s now law unto himself or the he has illegally constituted himself into law? Let’s look at it from this perspective; Sanusi said that you cannot also deposit money into your individual account in excess of N150,000 per day and N1million for a corporate account.

Q, But why should a customer pay money to a bank when the statutory duty of the bank is to receive deposit unencumbered?

A, This is Sanusi’s position and I say no. Moreover, let’s assume that they’re not admitting that a bank has a right to impose penalty on its customers, is it the duty of the bank to impose penalties? Before you can impose a penalty, it means that the offence is against the state. So, if the purported offence is against the state, is the bank the State or Federal government against which the offence took place? When a bank and the customer were entering into a civil contract, civil not criminal; was there such agreement between the bank and the customer that as an individual account owner or as a corporate entity he cannot withdraw such amount? The answer is no.

Q,Why do you think Sanusi would be encouraging the banks to arm-twist the customers?

A, The reason is very simple. Sanusi knows that all the banks in Nigeria are dying. I’ve been warning against this thing for a very long time that we don’t have any strong bank in Nigeria so, the only way Sanusi feels that he can help the banks to mobilize funds and to beef up their dwindling fortunes is to come up with penalties. So, when I challenged him last year, Sanusi came out again to say that. ‘no, it’s not going to be penalty again but the purported 10% or 20% is not a penalty again but a cash withdrawal fee. I went through the CBN guide to banks charges and there’s nothing like that. Now, he’s come out to say it is service
charge, I went through the CBN Guide to bank charges again and there’s nothing
called service charge. So, you can see that Sanusi is a very confused man. If Jonathan allows the man to complete his term, he would have ruined the economy worse that Soludo did.

Q, What’s your grouse with the Central Bank of Nigeria?

A, Our relationship can never be cordial because I have written several petitions against them. And my position now is that CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido should go because our economy is in shambles and investors are no longer coming in for investments. When you have a CBN governor that is so loud that he double speaks and thinks with his mouth and talks with his brain, then there will be problem. Imagine, under his governance, we have reports that people cannot rely on from all the banks. Let me tell you, the same Sanusi was a boy to most of these banks managers, so how do you expect him to perform genuinely.

Q, You seem not ready to shift grounds on the request for Sanusi’s sack, if this is granted, what does it promise the Nigerian Banking System?

A, This man has always been part of the problem, so he cannot be a solution. He was a former executive director in UBA, he’s also the former managing director in First Bank, he’s always part of the problem of the banking industry. It was the banking industry that brought the Nigerian economy into this parlous state. So, bringing such person who is part of the banking cabal to come and supervise his own cabal will definitely not work. What Nigeria needs is a patriotic CBN governor not someone like Sanusi who is too partisan, fanatic in religion, he’s not objective at all and he has lost direction. He’s just groping in the dark thinking that he’s looking for solutions. That was the same way he brought in Assessment Management Corporation of Nigeria and I told him that it cannot work. At the end of the day, where is AMCON? It’s dead on arrival. AMCON cannot deliver because Nigerians are not indebted to banks whereas banks are busy stealing customers’ money.

Q, After the recapitalization project, do you mean that Nigerian banks are still unhealthy?

A, There’s none and if there’s any healthy one I will tell you the truth. Are you aware that since 2009, Sanusi has guaranteed inter-bank placement in Nigeria, the implication is that the banks need not due diligence when they are lending themselves money. This is so because any money a bank lends to another one, it is believed that it is lending it to the Federal government. So, they don’t need to fear. Now, I’m also aware that the purported inter-bank guarantee is the exclusive responsibility of the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation. It is only the NDIC that has the statutory power to do inter-bank.