Senate names minister, 4 Banks in MTN Illegal $13.9Bn remittance

Senate names minister, 4 Banks in MTN Illegal $13.9Bn remittance

enelamahThe Chairman Senate Committee on Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Senator Dino Melaye on Tuesday made good his promise by telling the red chamber how Minister of Trade and Investments, Dr. Okechukwu Enelamah, with connivance of 4 commercial Banks helped telecom giant, MTN Nigeria to repatriate the sum of $13.9 billion illegally out of the country.

Senators were stunned by the disclosure as Melaye delved into the story of how Nigeria was milked in a mind-blowing capital flight arrangement. He accused the telecom company of making so much money in Nigeria and moving the money immediately out of the country without re-investing a good sum to shore up the technical integrity of its network.

Melaye also named the banks that were involved in the capital flight scam to include Stanbic IBTC, Standard Chartered, Citi Bank and Diamond Bank.

Senator Melaye had sounded the alarm last week and promised to bring to the floor details of the deal. Tuesday plenary therefore offered him the opportunity to do so. The Senate has directed its committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions to probe the allegation and report back within four weeks.