The lingering N573 million row has hit a new rock as the Presidential Investigation Commission of Inquiry on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Monday invited the General Overseer of ‘Divine Hand of God Prophetic Ministries International, Abuja, Pastor Emmanuel Omale over the saga.
In view of the invitation, he was also expected to shed light on his relationship with the suspended Acting Chairman of EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Magu.
Reports have it that Omale was alleged by the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) to have wired the N573million to the United Arab Emirates to buy properties for Magu.
But, at its session on Saturday, the management of First City Monument Bank (FCMB) admitted error on alleged N573million credited to one Pastor Omale.
According to the bank, Omale never had such cash but a system error credited him and 17 others with N573million each.
Sources have disclosed that the invitation was to find out whether the link between Magu and Omale had influence on the activities of the EFCC.
A source said: “The Commission of Inquiry has invited the cleric and he went there with a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.
“It is all about his relationship with Magu, his comments on the pulpit and the so-called N573million which the bank has cleared. The General Overseer has repeatedly denied the allegations.
“We are awaiting the outcome of the panel’s session with the pastor.”
Meanwhile, reports have it that the panel was shocked on Saturday when the management admitted that the reported inflow of N573million into Omale’s account was an error. The bank owned up on the error in the presence of Magu and his counsel, Wahab Shittu.
A source said: “The three-man team from the bank, led by its Managing Director/ CEO, Mr. Adam Nuru, told the committee that the bank was changing its applications and in the process on January 16, 2016, its system reported inflow of N573million each for Magu and 27 other companies on the same day. Each of those affected was credited with N573million.
“The bank said it just discovered the error.”
The source who spoke with the Nation quoted Nuru as saying: “On January 16, 2016, we made a return to NFIU, which indicated that there was a transaction of an inflow of well over N573million. (N573,228,40).
“This return was said to be in favour of Divine Hand of God Prophetic Ministries Account No 1486743019.
“After that report, we conducted an investigation and discovered that the lodgement which we reported to NFIU was an error.
“The error was as a result of the migration from an application to another.
“Usually, when the bank intends to migrate from one application to another, we utilize weekends to carry out the exercise. The migration involves moving all the balances of customers from the previous application to the new application. The account of the Divine Hand Ministries was moved during that migration.
“In that branch, we have 983 accounts (Banex). The credit balance in all the 983 accounts domiciled came to the aforesaid amount. It was that balance of N573million that was wrongly posted as an inflow into Divine Hand Ministries as reported to NFIU.
“This error was not peculiar to Divine Hand of God Prophetic Ministries alone but was also ascribed to 27 other accounts.”
Responding to why the bank detected the error after four years, he said “the bank just realized the error upon invitation by the panel.”
“The Chairman of the panel, Justice Isa Ayo Salami asked: You admitted this monumental error and you are trivializing it. Do you know how many lives would have been lost to such a costly error?
“The panel thereafter directed FCMB to write officially to NFIU to apologise for misleading it.”
But, counsel to the suspended Acting Chairman of EFCC, Shittu, told the panel that the nation and the international community had gone with the impression that the cleric bought N573million assets for Magu.
Shittu sought the permission of the panel to clarify the N573million to the public, if the situation demands.
While responding to an enquiry, said “it was embarrassing. I wish to express disgust, displeasure and monumental embarrassment to my client. Such humongous amount was said to be an inflow purportedly used to buy houses for Magu in Dubai.
“It is unfortunate that Magu has been maligned because of such a costly error. We are considering our legal options against the bank and those who published the allegations designed to disparage Magu.”
