Pat Utomi: I did not take Bank PHB loan for presidential campaign

Renowned political economist, Prof. Pat Utomi , on Tuesday told a Lagos High Court, Ikeja, that he did not obtain any loan from the defunct Bank PHB to fund his 2007 presidential campaign.

Utomi told the court presided by Justice Lateefat Okunnu that he spent only N30 million on the campaign.

Utomi made this clarification while being cross-examined by the counsel to the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), Mr. Kemi Pinheiro in a matter brought against the bank’s former managing director, Mr. Francis Atuche.

He insisted that his presidential campaign did not gulp N2 billion as being suggested by the prosecution counsel.

Pinheiro had suggested that Utomi’s campaign was funded by the bank while cross examining him as the defence witness in the matter.

The EFCC had sued Atuche, his wife, Elizabeth and the bank’s former chief operating officer, Ugo Anyanwu over alleged theft of the bank’s N27.5 billion.

Counsel to the EFCC, Mr. Pinheiro had alleged that the bank advanced a N2 billion credit facility to Baywood Continental Limited, a company whose board was chaired by Utomi.

Pinheiro claimed that the loan was secured from Bank PHB about the same time Utomi was going around the country soliciting for votes for his presidential ambition.

But Utomi, a former Chairman of Bank PHB Corporate Governance Committee, denied the allegation, saying that Baywood Continental did not collect any loan from the bank.