Our dealings are clean and legitimate – Sterling Bank

Sterling Bank Plc has said its dealings being a lead bank in an N8 billion syndicated loan-financing transaction between it and Grant Properties Limited, a property development company, owned by one Chief Olajide Awosedo, which spanned over a decade solely with depositors funds was transparent.

The bank’s rebuttal followed a report by an online news medium where Grant Properties accused the lender of withholding and selling 10-hectares from its 50-hectare land used as collateral to Mr. Yemi Idowu, its one-time non-executive director.

Refuting the allegations, Sterling Bank said it was not true that 10 hectares of land was sold to Mr. Yemi Idowu, the non-executive director of the bank.
“It is not true that 10 hectares of land was sold to Mr. Yemi Idowu. The 10 hectares was sold to a Company known as the Real Estate Development (RED) Company Limited and the decision to sell the 10 hectares was a joint decision between the Consortium of Banks (Wema, Skye, Unity & Sterling) and the Developer (Grant Properties/Chief Olajide Awosedo) as the proceeds of sale was to be used to refund subscribers of Phase 2 of the project who had become restive due to the failure of the Developer to commence work on the project( deliver various housing units with deposit from subscribers in excess of N2.1billion). Sterling Bank could not have singlehandedly sold any part of the land as the security was pledged to the Banking consortium that financed the project. It is instructive to note that the proceeds of sale of the 10 hectares was passed to Grant Properties/Chief Awosedo for onward transmission to the subscribers that had demanded for a refund.