**Nigeria’s former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar is included in a list released by the Central Bank of wealthy tycoons who have failed to pay back bank loans.**It is the second time in two months that big debtors have been named and shamed in the oil-rich nation.
This list names 600 people who owe more than $2.5bn (£1.54bn) to four of five banks - some of the latest banks to be taken over by the government.
A BBC reporter says the scale of the debt has created a scandal in Nigeria.
The BBC’s Caroline Duffield in Lagos says the latest move by the Central Bank marks the end of its forensic audit of Nigeria’s 24 financial institutions.
Back in August, the scandal emerged as the government stepped in to take control of five banks - sacking their management teams.
Four chief executives were arrested - they are now being prosecuted on multiple fraud charges.
A fifth chief executive is on the run - he is thought to be in the UK, our correspondent says.
Powerful people
The list of debtors to the Bank PHB, Equitorial Trust Bank, Spring Bank and Unity Bank was posted on the Central Bank website on Wednesday evening.
BANKS UNDER FIRE
- August:
Afribank, Intercontinental Bank, Finbank, Oceanic Bank, Union Bank - October:
Equitorial Trust, Bank PHB, Spring Bank, Unity Bank, Wema Bank
Nigeria’s new credit crunch](http://www.paklinks.com/2/low/business/8271450.stm)
Debts owed to a fifth bank, Wema Bank, have not been revealed.
Other powerful people on the list include:
• Aliko Dangote, president of Nigeria’s Stock Exchange, who is Africa’s wealthiest man
• Culture Minister Adetokunbo Kayode
• Peter Ololo, a stockbroker, who has the largest debt of more than $110m.
Our reporter says Mr Ololo was previously unknown, but has been dubbed ‘‘the man who brought down the banks’’ by Nigeria’s press.
Among the other debtors listed were the oil company Conoil, Peugeot Automobiles Nigeria and the local governments of Bauchi and Anambra States.
It brings the total of Nigeria’s bad debts uncovered by Central Bank governor Lamido Sanusi to about $5bn.
The anti-fraud police say they are now begin building a case against the most recently sacked chief executives.
Correspondents say Mr Abubakar and the other debtors may have their property confiscated and could face arrest.
Mr Abubakar served as Olusegun Obasanjo’s vice-president but fell out with him and was suspended from the ruling People’s Democratic Party in 2006 after he was accused of diverting $125m to personal businesses - accusations he denied.
In a biography that came out before the 2007 presidential election, in which Mr Abubakar came third, he attributed his wealth to “wise investments, hard work and sheer luck of being at the right place at the right time”.