A statement issued on his behalf by his Media Assistant, Suleiman Adebajo, in Lagos, said: “Akingbola wishes to make clear – in light of escalating press speculation – that he is most emphatically not evading arrest by the law enforcement agencies in Nigeria or ‘on the run’.”

Akingbola, who the statement addressed as the Group Chief Executive, and a Director of Intercontinental Bank Plc, President of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of Adekunle Ajasin University, Ondo State, Nigeria and the Second Vice-President of Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE), said he is “not guilty of any wrongdoing but appears targeted for persecution and for character desmirchment”.

The statement read: “He is currently in the UK. Our client believes that the prime objective of detaining all those arrested is to prevent them from presenting their side of the story. All persons should be presumed innocent until proved guilty by a court of law. As soon as it was alleged that he was evading arrest, Dr Akingbola notified the UK authorities of his whereabouts and provided full contact details through his legal representatives. Dr Akingbola strenuously denies all allegations of wrongdoing or improper conduct and has challenged the legal validity of his removal from office as Group Chief Executive of Intercontinental Bank Plc by way of judicial review which will come up at the Lagos Judicial Division of the Federal High Court on 14th September 2009.

Bail

“The proceedings relating to the bail application by the four other bank Chief Executive Officers and other non executive directors of Intercontinental Bank Plc have also been adjourned to the same date.

“All further comments on this matter will await the outcome of the legal suit in order not to prejudice the outcome of the suit.”

According to one of his associates, Akingbola believes he is the main target of the sack of five bank chiefs by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Akingbola had travelled to the UK a few days before the sack, after holding a meeting with the staff and informing them of the impending CBN action.

On August 14, the CBN had sacked the senior management teams of five banks -Afribank, Finbank, Intercontinental Bank, Oceanic International Bank and Union Bank – and injected N420 billion, saying lax governance had left them dangerously undercapitalized.