The special anti-fraud unit of the Nigerian police on Wednesday in Lagos arrested former Managing Director of Intercontinental Bank, Mahmoud Alabi, for fraud related to a questionable loan write-off.

According to Saharareporters, Alabi's arrest followed a petition submitted to the unit by the brother of a whistleblower who was allegedly killed for revealing shady dealings involving former Kwara State Governor Bukola Saraki.

Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Sanusi Lamido, had appointed Alabi to run Intercontinental Bank at the beginning of the CBN's banking reform in 2009. The reform began with the CBN sacking several commercial bank chief executives deemed to be linked to corruption.

However, the appointment of Alabi raised serious concerns at the time. He had served as the MD of Songa Farms owned by the Saraki family.

In a 2010 petition, the former MD of the bank, Erastus Akingbola, wrote a nine-page petition to President Goodluck Jonathan stating that Alabi had improperly written off N8bn in loans to companies with links to Saraki. He gave the companies' names as Linkers, Dicetrade, Skyview Properties and Joy Petroleum.

Police sources told Saharareporters that Alabi wrote off billions of naira in unserviced loans linked to Saraki. In addition, Alabi decided to release four houses in Lagos and another two in Abuja that the Sarakis had been used as collateral to secure the huge loans.

In a telephone interview with Saharareporters Saraki insisted that the whistleblower was not killed but died of natural causes.

The Commissioner of Police in SFU, Mr. Tunde Ogunsakin, confirmed the arrest, adding that Alabi was being interrogated.

"He is with us," he said.