A yet-to-be-disclosed bank manager in one of the commercial banks who was arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Monday for hoarding a whooping sum of undisbursed #29m to customers has now become a major discourse among Nigerians.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Monday released a statement that it had arrested a bank’s operations manager in Abuja for hoarding N29m worth of new naira notes.
Before the arrest, the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN), had instructed all commercial banks to start an over-the-counter disbursement of the new notes to curb its scarcity in the country which in turn has yielded no result as many Nigerians were given #10 and #100 denominations in place of the newly designed #200, #500, and #1000; aside still being found in long queues in different banks of the country.
Consequently, the daily travails of Nigerians in getting their money from the banks, led to the intervention of security agencies to find out what and who is behind the scarcity of the notes as they begin to comb commercial banks in the country.
The EFCC, which is one of the agencies, said its operatives on Monday arrested the unnamed bank staff during one of its operations.
“An Operations Manager of a leading Commercial bank in Abuja Central Area was on Monday, February 6, 2023, arrested by operatives of the Economic and Financial Commission, EFCC for refusing to load the Automated Teller Machines, ATMs, of the bank despite having N29 million of the redesigned Naira notes in the branch’s vaults,” the agency said in a Monday statement.
According to the statement, the operation manager, before taken away was ordered to load all the ATMs with the stipulated amount across the counters, to the amazement of the worried customers who had spent hours in long queues without getting the new notes
However, this has generated many reactions from Nigerians who have now turned the tables from blaming the Federal Government and the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele to bank officials who are trying to sabotage and frustrate the Naira swap by hoarding and enriching themselves to the detriment of Nigerians.
Beston LC Nzerem said; “Good! They should make more arrests display their names, and the Banks where they work”
Patrick Obiazo also said; unfortunately, these wicked bank officials on the payroll of politicians are being used by the desperate politicians from Apc to sabotage and discredit the efforts of government and create the impression that the policy of government is causing hardships and has to be suspended so that they can achieve their nefarious plots
Ezinne Amanda said: Let them come to Owerri are really suffering there the bankers are evil here.
Okechukwu Nweke said; That’s how they steal customers’ money in their custody.
However, the EFCC noted in the statement that the surveillance continues and more visits would be made to the banks across the country to access their vaults and verify whether they were deliberately refusing to dispense the redesigned Naira notes
Further, the EFCC while assuring Nigerians that it will continue the operation across the nation “until normalcy is restored to the banking system”, also encouraged Nigerians finding it difficult to access their funds at any bank to contact the commission, for immediate intervention in the suspicion of any foul play.
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