Otunba Balogun's Burden

Otunba Subomi Balogun is regarded as one of the foremost bankers in Nigeria today having established the first indigenous bank. But his reputation and integrity are now on the line. Aside the strict punishment from the Central Bank that has decided to make a scapegoat of his bank and Securities company, the FCMB Chairman himself is now in the public arena with some depositors who apparently acted through a middle man (in this case a woman) asking that he pays them huge sums of money lost in some foreign exchange deals. While Otunba Balogun insists he has no hand in the scam, the woman at the centre of the controversy, Mrs. Comfort Nyam, (nee Kwajafar) has gone public with her tales which tend to put a question mark, if not on the FCMB Chairman, at least on his bank. She has also accused Bolaji Balogun of being privy to all the controversial transactions. But how credible is she? Olusegun Adeniyi who has been speaking with officials of City Securities Limited, including Bolaji, who is now one of the prime movers in Econet, reports that the embattled woman may be rather economical with the truth in her bid to gain public sympathy for what is evidently an untidy affair for all the parties concerned.