Nigeria Banks To Shutdown Nationwide A major crisis looms in the financial sector, as all banks in the country may shut their doors to customers anytime this week, as their chief executive officers (CEOs) move to protest the continued detention of their staff by the Department of State Security (DSS). Daily Sun gathered that the CEOs are irked by
the arrest and detention of several key officials
of no fewer than 13 banks over the last two
weeks by security operatives, saying that this
has not only crippled their operations but also
poses a great risk if normal banking operations continues. The 13 banks directly affected by the arrests
are Zenith Bank, Access Bank, Fidelity Bank,
Unity Bank, First City Monument Bank (FCMB),
First Bank Plc, Skye Bank, Sterling Bank,
Diamond Bank, Ecobank, Wema Bank,
Guaranty Trust Bank and CitiBank. The arrest of the bank officials are linked to
money laundering case against the Jigawa
State governor, Alhaji Sule Lamido, a key
member of the G7 governors, who is also one
of the arrowheads of the New PDP believed to
be opposed to President Goodluck Jonathan’s rumoured second term ambition. The DSS is said to be investigating questionable
transactions involving the governor and two of
his sons, Aminu and Mustapha, who is the
District Head of Bamaina, their hometown.
While the governor is said to have escaped
arrest, as a result of his constitutional immunity, his two sons were arrested last week by the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC). However, it is the DSS that is handling
the case of the bankers. According to the DSS, following the arrest of
Aminu, last year, at the Aminu Kano
International Airport Kano, for failing to make
full declaration of the $50, 000 he had on him
while trying to board a flight to Egypt, where
his wife was receiving treatment, further investigation of the sources of income of the
governor’s son revealed huge transactions
involving the movement of Jigawa State funds
into accounts of companies in which both the
governor and his two sons are believed to
have interest. The amount involved, according to the DSS, is about N10 billion. The DSS had subsequently swooped on the 13
banks in which the companies have accounts
and even obtained a court order to freeze the
accounts. Also, it had begun a systematic arrest
and detention of senior officials of the bank in
the last two weeks. While not questioning the powers of the DSS to
arrest anybody, a source close to one of the
bank chief executive told Daily Sun yesterday
that the CEOs were worried that the bankers
have been held without arraignment, for over
two weeks, a clear violation of their rights. “The laws of the country say that nobody can
be detained for more than 48 hours without
been charged to court,” the source said,
adding: “Some of them have now been
detained for 16 days without access to their
families or lawyers. They are being held incommunicado.” According to him, the bank chiefs, some of
who met last weekend, are saying that they
might not have any other choice than to shut
down operations, as some of the officials being
detained are key to their operations. “One of those arrested is a director. Some
others are risk managers, fraud control and
detection officers, zonal and regional
coordinators and key IT experts. There are
compliance managers among the arrested.
There are also account officers, branch managers, chief inspectors and heads of
treasury among those arrested. To continue to
operate without these key personnel could
expose depositors’ funds to serious danger.
So, the bank CEOs are thinking it might be safer
to close shop to secure depositors’ funds and reduce expose to a possible collapse of the
nation’s banking system,” the senior bank
sour said. Apart from the risk of possible compromise of
the system, the bank chiefs are also frowning
at the propriety of the DSS action. They fear
that, unlike the EFCC and the Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN), which have the wherewithal to
investigate bank transactions and fraud, the DSS may not be threading on a familiar turf. The source said: “The banks daily, and
statutorily, report transactions and fraud alerts
to both the EFCC and the CBN. If there is any
suspicion over such transactions, the DSS can
crosscheck and verify with both the EFCC and
the CBN. It is rather shocking that the investigation of transactions by companies of
the sons of the Jigawa State governor would
warrant such mindless and elaborate
disruption of banking operations in 13 banks,
which is what this arrest and continued
detention of these critical bank official amount.” Another source close to a bank CEO said the
manner of arrest was an issue also. According
to him, the idea of literally kidnapping these
bankers and traumatising their families is
particularly unfair. “Even though none of the officials was said to
have resisted arrest or refused to co-operate
with the security operative, the security
personnel still hounded them down like
common criminals. Some were aroused from
sleep, with machine guns pointed at them and their family members,” the source stated. He particularly pointed to a case in Lagos,
where the child of the affected officer was
rudely awoken from sleep by scores of gun-
wielding operatives, who were turning their
home upside-down, allegedly searching for
documents. According to him, another of the bankers
arrested in Lagos was eventually moved to
Abuja in a military aircraft. He said the bank chiefs, who are seriously
considering the option of closing

Don't you think you should have created this topic in the Politics section?

Hmmmmmm........they should wait first oo,let me go tomorrow and withdraw some money I will use for my travelling.......


@topic.......Let DSS simply charge them to court naa

*on my way to the Bank to withraw my remin 1200 *bike bank road.

If u have money in thoes 13listed banks, u better run go withdraw ur money or u face the doom! As for me I don withdraw mine put under rug. (if the epistle is real sha)

This fisherman is surely mad.

Next week na salary week ooo, make dem no try nonsense! Don't want to hear that funds meant for salary disbursement of various organizations were returned cos of d strike!