‘Baba Ijebu’, 37 other companies Accounts Frozen over ‘Economic Sabotage’

• Companies move forex abroad without authorisation

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has uncovered a slew of sharp practices by some companies who want to short-change the government.

The companies in question, 38 in number, are accused of moving forex to foreign countries without the permission of the government.

To this end, the apex bank has directed banks to place a post-no-debit on the bank accounts of the 38 companies.

The affected accounts belong to betting companies, bureau de change companies and some logistics companies.

One of the companies, Premier Lotto, is owned by Adebutu Kessington, a Nigerian businessman popularly known as “Baba Ijebu”.

The companies are being accused of forex infractions, moving forex abroad without the required authorisation and “economic sabotage”.

According to TheCable, that one of the gaming companies moved $420 million abroad under the guise of purchasing software.

Also Read: CBN Issues Fresh Directives On Approval Of Forex Via Third Party

But the funds were later traced to the foreign accounts of some of the directors of the company.

“The forex was sourced from the black market, thereby putting pressure on the exchange rate. The gaming companies are awash with naira which sit in their bank accounts, so they devised a way of moving the funds abroad,” TheCable quoted a source to have said.

The September 4 memo signed by Bello Hassan, director of banking supervision, read: “You are hereby required to place the under listed accounts on post-no-debit with immediate effect and revert with the account names, numbers, currencies and balances of all accounts placed on PND”.

A post-no-debit means that all debit transactions, including ATMs and cheques, on the accounts have been blocked but money can be deposited into the accounts.

Some of the affected companies are Premier Lotto Limited, 3D Scanners Bureau De Change Limited, Blue Wall Nigeria Limited, JNFX International Limited and Northline Limited.

Others are SV Gaming Limited, R&S Lotto Limited, TM Gaming Networks Limited, Escale Oil and Gas Limited, Barkoli Trading Company Limited, Godoni Enterprises Limited.

The apex bank said only the listed companies should be placed on PND adding that all related accounts be excluded.

---

Advertise or Publish a Story on EkoHot Blog:

Kindly contact us at [email protected]. Breaking stories should be sent to the above email and substantiated with pictorial evidence.

Citizen journalists will receive a token as data incentive.

Call or Whatsapp: 0803 561 7233, 0703 414 5611