The suffering of depositors of Savannah Bank
is aptly reflected in the email received from
one of our readers, Izuchukwu Emmanuel.
“Please I was very optimistic to read your
repor , when I saw the headline on your firm’s
online page. Please I want to know if there is
any hope that the bank will to re-open for
business. My late dad had an account with
the bank and my mum is suffering from
financial burdens since the demise of my dad.
Please keep me informed if there is any.
Thanks.”
Though brief, the email is loaded with
meanings, and silent on many various ways
the Savannah Bank saga is impacting families
and businesses across the country. For
example, how are we sure that the money
trapped in the Bank did not in any way
contribute to the death of this man’s father?
How are we sure that the inability of the
family of the deceased to access his money in
Savannah Bank has not affected the education
of his children?
It won’t be surprising that one or more
children of the deceased had dropped out of
school because the family could not pay
school fees. How are we also sure that the
money trapped in Savannah Bank has not
transferred a middle income family to the
swelling ranks of the over 70 percent of
Nigerians living below the poverty line?
Savannah Bank was closed in February 2007,
and many have forgotten that the bank was
closed on a Friday night, few hours after
millions of individuals and businesses
deposited their cash takings for the week into
their bank account. Many of these customers
would have done so with the intention of
accessing the money the following Monday to
address one family or business need or the
other.
The manner in which the bank was closed,
which is akin to a coup detart, aggravated the
severe impact of the closure on the customers.
There is no doubt, the closure and continued
closure of Savannah Bank have contributed
significantly to the problem of poverty and
unemployment in the country. Hence it is a
national shame.
While the ability of the owners of Savannah
Bank to raise the needed capital to reopen the
bank, and the response of the Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN) to the plight of the depositors
of the bank would greatly determine how long
the family of Izuchukwu Emmanuel and other
depositors will continue to suffer, the attitude
of the depositors themselves can play a
critical role.
If they adopt a ‘siddon-look’ attitude, they
might suffer forever. But if they decide to take
action to recover their money, their suffering
may end in a matter of weeks or months. It is
good that the depositors have formed a group,
which last year, petitioned the President and
Minister for Finance over their money trapped
in the bank. Given the fact that there seems to
be no concrete response to their petition, it is
time for the depositors to take more action.
The first step is to explore the option of
dialogue with the management of the CBN.
The depositors of Savannah Bank should send
a delegation to the CBN Governor, to seek the
position and plan of the apex bank on the
continued closure of the bank and the
entrapment of their money. The delegation
should go with well articulated list of demand
with deadline for the apex bank on the release
of their money. If the apex bank and the
owner of the bank fail to comply with this
deadline, then
the depositors should explore the option of
legal action. To be continued next week. Send
comments and enquiries to
vanguardinvestorsforum@gmail.com

my brother's money was trapped in this bank since 2002