The Association of Ex-staff of Non-Consolidated Banks of Nigeria has appealed to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) to obey court rulling and settle them of their entitlements without delay.
Mr Magnus Maduka, Chairman of the association, made the appeal at a news conference on Friday in Lagos.
Maduka said that members of the association deserved their severances after diligently serving the banking industry.
According to him, some members have served the industry for over two decades and therefore it is their right to get their money.
“We therefore strongly appeal to the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation to be magnanimous enough to settle our claims without further ado.
“Our members have served this country in the banking industry for many years of their lives; some for over two decades.
“We are not responsible for the economic doldrums of our nation; we believe the delay in settling claims is uncalled for and could be misinterpreted to be callously punitive and not serving any positive whatsoever.
“The aggregate of our benefits is just pittance to CBN and NDIC. CBN has the weightier matter of checkmating the free fall of the naira on its plate, than the “crumps from her table’’ that our members are demanding for some fifteen long years,’’ Magnus said.
He said that over 300 members of the association had lost their lives so far, not to mention several untimely deaths of defendants of their colleagues.
He said many families had broken-up and living colleagues were living with all manners of sicknesses had cropped up like loss of sights, diabetes, stroke, among others.
Magnus said, “properly crunched, the casualties we have suffered in this our predicament could be circa 350 of our hapless members.’’
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that members of the association were disengaged workers of the defunct banks that could not meet up with N25 billion capitalisation requirement by CBN in 2006.
The authorised capital and paid up capital for commercial banks was to retain their operating license.
The bank’s include Trade Bank, Hallmark Bank, Gulf Bank, Metropolitan Bank and All States Bank.
The chairman also said that after members waited for a long while and nothing was forth coming with regard to payment of their severance package, they decided to come together collectively to sought legal redress.
He said, “After we had several court sessions with the presiding Judge of the Industrial Court, Ikoyi, judgment finally was given in our favour on May 23, 2022.
“Justice Paul Bassi of the National Industrial Court, Lagos, ordered CBN and NDIC to pay us (those affected by the recapitalisation exercise carried out by the CBN in 2006) N5.7 billion terminal benefits within three months’’.
“The judge gave the regulators three months with which to get back to us, failing which there will be 10 per cent interest on the sum in question; but up until now, they have not gotten across to us.
“But, we cannot preempt them because the deadline is not yet here, it’s just a little over a month now. So, we believe they must be doing something that will come out positive and we don’t expect any nasty surprise’’.
NAN also reports that the duly registered association has over 1000 members. (NAN)
