Depositors in their hundreds have besieged the Enugu Zonal office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to submit petitions and claims in what appears a last minute attempt to see how much could be salvaged out of over N4 billion which has been trapped in a failed wonder bank.
One of the depositors told National Daily that she has been coming to the EFCC office since Monday because the agency asked them to bring their claims and agreement with the failed wonder bank. “But it’s not been easy because the crowd has been too much and when the rush became uncontrollable they locked their gate,” she explained.
Some of the depositors disclosed that apart from monies deposited for which 10% was being paid monthly by the company, there were other funds from monthly contributions some of which are paid back to contributors between six months to one year accumulation.
South East Zonal Head of the EFCC Johnson Babalola who addressed newsmen in Enugu recently disclosed had that proprietor of the failed bank, Chief Patrick Nowkike, aka Shine-Shine was being detained with his wife as one of the signatories to the two accounts in which the over N4 billion belonging to depositors was paid into.
He noted that the suspect Chief Nwokike collected over N4 billion from unsuspecting members of the public using the name and style of “Lets Partner with You” in return for certain monthly percentage on the invested money.
“The N4 billion is from only two of the 20 bank accounts identified and traced to the suspect. It is suspected that a larger percentage of funds are stashed in an offshore account.There is no money in the accounts; as the monies are coming they are being wired out; assets tracing, money tracing is not an easy thing and we have to be very meticulous about it; and that’s what we are doing.”
Babalola disclosed that the anti-graft agency is not able to give the exact figure of depositors fund with because petitions keep coming on a daily basis. “Until we are able to burst into other accounts we shall be able to give a near accurate figure of the money he has collected from people,” he explained.