News

N1.1trn Anchor Borrowers’ Loan Default: Tinubu Orders Security Agencies To Recover Cash Before Sept 18

Published

2 years ago

September 2, 2023

The ambitious Anchor Borrowers’ Loan Scheme floated by the Central Bank of Nigeria to make cash available for increased agricultural production in Nigeria has run into a glitch due to the inability of beneficiaries to repay the loan on maturity thereby holding up government funds and denying others from tapping into the scheme, Saturday Vanguard, has discovered.

Findings by the newspaper show that out of the N1.1 trillion disbursed by the CBN to the beneficiaries of the ABS since its inception, only a little above N546 billion has been repaid while a whopping balance of N577 billion remains unaccounted for.

The huge amount being held up by the borrowers, which Saturday Vanguard, understands, includes commercial and microfinance banks, state governments, farmers’ associations, individuals and corporate entities, is said to have angered the Presidency, which feels that the aim of the programme might be derailed, if the huge cash is not immediately retrieved from the debtors.

According to competent sources, who spoke to Vanguard, President Bola Tinubu, who had been briefed severally on the situation, is upset that such amount of money, which could give succor to other farmers, is being withheld by some of the beneficiaries.

One of the security agencies told our correspondent that the President had summoned top security agencies in the country to take all necessary measures to recover the huge amount of government money from the defaulters on or before September 18, 2023 so as to make the cash available to genuine farmers who want safe loans for more food production.

Vanguard learnt that at a meeting with security agencies in Abuja, the president was very upset when he was told that one of the CBN’s subsidiaries was among the defaulting banks, holding up vital cash that was meant for farmers to improve their production and ensure food security in the country.

At the meeting, said to have taken place at the Presidential Villa earlier in the day, the president was told that a subsidiary of the CBN and a commercial bank in the country, had diverted N255 million which they were supposed to give out to farmers and others in dire need of loans to improve their production.

At the same time, the apex bank’s subsidiary and a commercial bank in the country which acted as intermediaries between the borrowers and the CBN, are reported to have fraudulently diverted the sum of N255 million, which they secured from the lender but refused to disburse to the borrowers or return to the CBN.

Some of the beneficiaries, Vanguard learnt, refused to refund the loan as and when due, claiming that they did not make serious returns on their investments and needed more time to be able to pay back to the apex bank, not minding the terms of the deal they had earlier signed.

A top security official told Vanguard on condition of anonymity that many banks’ directors and managers had already been interrogated on the huge loans saga and that many of them had admitted to securing the said loans and the alleged breaches regarding the repayment.

“I can tell you authoritatively that we have written to all the defaulters and many bank officials have confessed of their role in the huge loan scandal and they are willing to take necessary steps to pay back the loans,” a source familiar with the development, told Vanguard.

“We have also written to all the debtors and some of the banks, whose top managers we have already summoned and grilled, have assured us that they will refund the cash outstanding in their names on or before the September 18 deadline,” the source added.

Some of the farmers’ groups which took part in the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, an ambitious CBN programme to promote agricultural production, include Maize Farmers’ Association, Soya beans and Cotton Farmers’ Association.

However, findings showed that while the Maize Producers Association took a loan of N39 billion from the CBN under the ABP, it has been able to refund a total of N23 billion while Cotton farmers took a loan of N14 billion and has been able to refund N5 billion so far.

But contacted most of the spokesmen for the security agencies in Abuja declined to speak on the presidential order for them to recover the money and return it to the CBN.

Although the Spokesman for the DSS, Dr. Peter Afunanya, declined to comment on the matter, he said however that there was nothing unusual for the president to order security agencies to act in national security matters.

News

Arrears: AAU Management Replies ASUU Over

Published

9 minutes ago

August 27, 2025

Editor

The management of Ambrose Alli University Ekpoma has responded to a recent publication by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), AAU Chapter, alleging that the Acting Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sunday Olowo Samuel, claimed to have cleared all staff arrears.

A statement issued by Otunba Mike Aladenika, Principal Assistant Registrar and Head of Information, Protocol, and Public Relations, described the claim by ASUU as far from the truth.

Aladenika said the Acting Vice-Chancellor’s 31-paragraph address to journalists did not state that all outstanding salary arrears had been paid.

He noted that instead, the VC emphasized the administration’s commitment to gradual liquidation of these arrears.

According to the imagemaker of the university, the Vice-Chancellor, in his speech, rather highlighted prompt payment of salaries and pensions as a hallmark of his administration, and noted that the university had implemented the new minimum wage of N70,000 as soon as it was approved.

Aladenika questioned where ASUU got their information from, given the Acting Vice-Chancellor’s clear statements.

“It’s worth noting that when the current administration took over, ASUU members were owed over 35 months in arrears.

“However, the debt has since been reduced as those owed 35 months and above were paid 10 months emblock in the 1st tranch, while in the 2nd tranch, those owe 20-months and above were also paid 10 months salary arrears, emblock. Apart from individuals among them who got paid on personal requests, the payment of the backlogs is still ongoing as various applications on salary arrears are been attended to, demonstrating the management’s commitment to gradual payment.

“On the issue of the 13th month salary, it’s essential to clarify that this has never been a right, but rather a subject of tripartite negotiations between workers, management, and the state government. There has been no prior agreement or understanding on this matter, and it has always been a point of negotiation for our unions.

“It’s worth noting that the university has never paid 13 months’ salary in a 12-month financial year. However, this doesn’t mean that the management is opposed to negotiations on the matter. Rather, we believe that it’s essential to approach such discussions in a constructive manner, rather than using it as a bargaining chip for blackmail.

“The management is open to negotiations, but we urge all parties to engage in good faith and avoid misrepresentations.”

News

US Court Sentences Osun Monarch To Prison Over $4.2m Fraud

Published

22 minutes ago

August 27, 2025

Editor

A United States District Court has sentenced the Apetu of Ipetumodu in Osun State, Oba Joseph Oloyede, to four years and eight months imprisonment over a $4.2million COVID-19 relief fraud scandal.

Justice Christopher Boyko while delivering the sentence on Tuesday, also ordered the monarch to pay $4.2 million in restitution.

According Osun Defender, the monarch was also ordered to pay the sum of $195,000 to the IRS for filing a false tax return.

Justice Boyko also ordered Oloyede to forfeit $96,000 in money seized from his bank account and his home on Foote Road that he bought in 2021 for $130,000.

Boyko said Oloyede was a “very smart guy who did a lot of stupid things.”

Oba Oloyede, a US-based accountant and information system expert, was appointed the new Apetu in July 2019.

The monarch was arrested alongside alongside Nigerian pastor, Edward Oluwasanmi in early 2024 for their roles in a scheme to fraudulently obtain $4.2m in COVID-19 relief funds.

The two men were charged with 13 counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to defraud, money laundering, and engaging in monetary transactions in criminally derived property.

News

OPINION: Ezekwesili, The NBA, And The Mirror Of Truth

Published

2 hours ago

August 27, 2025

Editor

The air inside the hall was thick with expectation. Learned silks in flowing robes, young wigs eager to impress, and the weight of tradition hung over the Nigerian Bar Association’s 2025 Conference. It was meant to be another gathering where speeches would be given, pleasantries exchanged, and resolutions filed away into dusty archives. But then, like a stone thrown into a still pond, Oby Ezekwesili rose, and the hall shifted.

Her words did not flatter. They struck with the urgency of a fire alarm in the middle of the night. She asked the lawyers, the guardians of the nation’s constitution, to look into the mirror. Not to admire the silk of their gowns or the polish of their titles, but to examine the log in their own eyes. For too long, she said, they had been arbiters who excused their own failings while pointing at the speck in others.

It was not a comfortable charge. Lawyers shifted in their seats. Some frowned. Some applauded. But the truth was laid bare: the Nigerian legal profession, once the conscience of society, has too often dropped the ball.

Think of the 2023 elections, where brazen infractions were documented, yet the courts delivered rulings that raised more questions than answers. Or the endless adjournments that have turned justice into a waiting game, eroding faith in the very system lawyers swore to uphold. Think of the silence of many senior advocates when judicial corruption is whispered about, as though the temple of justice can stand while its pillars are rotting.

Ezekwesili’s charge was not merely to critique. It was a trumpet call. She asked them to confront the truth that Nigeria is where it is today because those who should have drawn the lines of accountability too often chose convenience over courage. Lawyers were once in the vanguard of change: the Gani Fawehinmis, the Alao-Aka-Bashors, the Akinola Agudases. Their names are etched in our collective memory because they fought when it was costly. But where is that spirit now?

The metaphor of the mirror is haunting. For what is a mirror if not a silent witness? It does not flatter or deceive. It simply reflects. The Nigerian Bar Association cannot continue as though it is an observer of the nation’s decline; it must admit that its silence, its compromises, its complicity have helped fertilize the soil of Nigeria’s failures.

And yet, in Ezekwesili’s provocation lies a possibility. To look into the mirror is not merely to mourn, but to begin again. To reclaim the nobility of the law not as a profession of prestige, but as a calling of service. To recover the conscience that once made lawyers the voice of the voiceless.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR: [OPINION] BUHARI: The Man Who Missed Redemption

This is not about throwing stones at others. It is about removing the log in one’s own eye. For until the Bar confronts itself, it cannot hope to help Nigeria see clearly.

The question then lingers beyond the echoes of that hall: when next the mirror is held up, will the Nigerian Bar Association be able to stand and say, “We did not look away”?