In our Tuesday, 2nd April, 2024 edition, this medium was made privy to the activities of an individual at the Rokel Commercial Bank who the women call Mr. Yani. In that issue, Nightwatch promised to come up with more on this individual in subsequent editions.
The story of a man women call Mr Yani at Rokel Commercial Bank continues again in this edition. He is a man who entered the banking profession fresh out of college.
Not long after joining the bank, he rose to the position of treasurer, and now boasting that he is the wealthiest banker. How did this happen? Why is he still at the bank? These questions will be answered by this article.
This boast calls for us to look into this individual’s past with a fine tooth comb as wealthy people don’t work for banks; instead banks work for wealthy people.
What should make an individual working for a leading commercial bank boast about being the wealthiest banker while his overall boss is still in his seat? We will be remiss if we don’t look into how our Mr. Yani became so rich on his past and current salary brackets at the nation’s leading commercial bank.
At a bank whose present MD has won many regional, continental and global accolades for running the institution like a tight ship including innovative banking solutions such as digital inclusion of women, the youth and other vulnerable groups, how did our Mr. Yani become so rich?
In a country like Sierra Leone where public corruption is so rampant, where duty bearers are routinely accused of dipping into the coffers based on internal and external audit reports, Mr. Yani is making a boast that takes a swipe at the rules that govern his profession, including the rule of law.
In our last publication “Who is Mr. Yani at RCBank?” we narrated how Mr. Yani was caught in a racket where he diverted a whole bowser full of fuel meant for the bank’s needs or operations. We are told of how, caught in such a compromising position, Mr. Yani was forced to beg the bank’s then MD, lying prostrate on the floor like a seasoned Yoruba tribesman.
While we give credit to the then MD for his gracious forgiving of Mr. Yani, we still have to ask if that event of him being discovered for stealing fuel from the bank was the first time he was involved in stealing from the bank; is he still cutting corners with the bank’s fuel supply?
As a former bank treasurer caught in such an act, it should have been the bank’s focus to find out how long Mr. Yani had been getting away with stealing bowsers full of fuel before he was caught. The fuel business is very lucrative, only drug dealers can boast of seeing so much cash in their trade as fuel dealers.
So Mr. Yani the former bank treasurer and fuel thief had been well on his way to being rich, long before he was discovered the one time he probably slipped. Also, we know that such an action cannot be taken or pulled off by one individual; it requires teamwork. This hints at a fuel stealing syndicate at the bank probably headed by Mr. Yani, as probably the most ranking staff member in the racket.
In our investigation and going by what our reliable sources at the bank and the banking institution in general relayed to us, Mr. Yani boasts of having built more than 10 houses. In a country where homelessness is so rife, where people routinely get duped in rental scams, for one man to boast of having more than ten homes built by his hands should have raised the red flags that something was amiss then, as it still should be now.
The question then becomes how can Yani build more than 10 palatial houses on his salary as bank treasurer? How much does a bank treasurer make a month and how long would it take such a person to build more than 10 houses across the city and country on such a salary?
Sierra Leone is not a place for secrets; nearly almost everything is open to public consumption. Some of the women that Yani sexually harassed for which he was never sanctioned said word soon got to the then MD of Yani’s nefarious activities (stealing fuel) for which he was apprehended red handed.
The women and other ranking members of the bank told us that the once quiet and shy Yani, because of his new found wealth none of them suspected was being made at the bank outside his normal pay, started getting bolder and bolder approaching the female staff.
Obviously a man of low self-esteem, what Yani couldn’t get by flirting around women, he wanted to take by flashing money. He thought women would naturally find him attractive if he is rich.
The bank knows Mr. Yani, even if he tries to hide under piles and piles of work. The women that have suffered under his financial and job title violence, including other bank brass familiar with this case, all want the bank including the Central Bank and relevant authorities to look into Yani’s activities to figure out how he became the wealthiest banker.
This is a developing story and Nightwatch will continue to investigate and publish as we are made privy to information on Mr. Yani, who is still very much working at the RCBank.
The bank still has to consider the reputational risk attached to having an individual like Yani in their employment register.