Polaris Bank is in a big mess as the House of Representatives Ad hoc Committee on Recovered Loots and Assets of Government has discovered how $300 million belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was hidden in the bank.

At the public hearing of the panel in Abuja on Thursday, June 24th, 2021, the lawmakers sought to know from the bank the interest that accrued to the money from 2012 till date.

But Polaris Bank’s Acting Managing Director (MD), Innocent Ike revealed that the money was not hidden, but deposited appropriately by the national oil firm

However, the complainant and former public prosecutor with the defunct Special Presidential Investigative Panel (SPIP) on government assets and loots recovery, Tosin Ojaomo, disagreed.

Ojaomo said; “The transaction is shrouded in secrecy. The bank did not disclose anything, it secretly kept the money. It was when the presidential panel got wind of the hidden money, arrested the bank managers, interrogated and started prosecuting them that they admitted that the money was with them.”

“Upon discovery, the NNPC petitioned the House in its quest to recover the money having failed to cause the bank to release it on the corporation’s request.”

Polaris Bank MD told the committee that the money did not generate interest during the period, stating that current accounts do not yield returns.

According to him, the whole money has been paid to the corporation in tranches, but failed to tender documented evidence to back up his claims as requested by the legislators.

Documents available to the committee showed that about $32 million of the lump sum remained unaccounted for.

The bank chief executive equally denied that the money was dormant in the account, clarifying that his organisation lent out the deposit to oil and gas companies and power sector operators to boost the economy.

In a unanimous resolution, the panel adjourned to another date to enable the bank tender concrete documents backing the payment to the NNPC.