The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is currently questioning the Managing Director of Fidelity Bank, Mr. Nnamdi Okonkwo in connection with a $115 million deposit by four oil firms. Nigeria’s former Petroleum minister, Diezani Alison Madueke also made some cash payment to Fidelity bank.
ThisDay newspaper quotes an EFCC source as saying, “We have extended invitations to some of the owners of the oil firms who brought the pool of $115million that was given to Fidelity Bank Plc to change into Naira for the purpose of tampering with the results of the presidential election.
āSo far, only one of them has indicated interest in appearing before our team. We will give others some time to report but they are under surveillance, they cannot run out of this country.
āOnce they can explain the legitimate sources of the funds, we will allow them to go home. By the Money Laundering Act, they were not supposed to be in possession of such huge cash.ā
Fidelity Bank has responded to the allegations in a statement on Friday morning;Ā āOur attention has been drawn to reports in the media on investigations into transactions undertaken by the bank in the normal course of business in 2015.
āThe transactions are now the subject matter of investigations by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
āWe can confirm that the transactions were duly reported as required by the regulators and the bank is cooperating fully with the authorities on the investigation.
āWe assure our numerous stakeholders, including our customers, that we are working assiduously towards a quick resolution of the issues.ā