Naira Redesign: Sterling Bank In Messy N258m New Notes Hoarding Scandal As ICPC Arrests Officials

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) says it arrested the Regional and Service managers of a new commercial bank for hoarding N258 million in its vault in the face of widespread cash shortages.

The bank’s Abuja headquarters of Sterling Bank has been implicated in this racketeering scheme involving new naira notes.

BIGPEN NIGERIA (www.bigpenngr.com), reports ICPC released information about the arrest on Monday.

According to the statement, the raid that resulted in the arrest happened last Friday, February 3, 2023.

The arrest follows the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) instructions regarding the distribution of the newly designed naira note.

ICPC says it was as part of ongoing efforts to ensure that commercial banks comply with the CBN rules that the arrest was made.

“This discovery followed one of the Commission’s operations aimed at ensuring that commercial banks and other interest groups do not flout the apex bank’s directive.”

“When the ICPC monitoring team visited the bank and discovered the stashed new Naira notes in the bank’s vault, it was informed that the cash was the remnant of what the CBN had given the bank for onward distribution to its branches.

“The team however found out that only the sum of Five Million Naira (N5m) each was distributed to their various branches.

“Both the Regional and Service managers were arrested and later granted administrative bail while the investigation continues,” the statement reads.