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 shop and
going on strike may make true their threat
anytime between today and Wednesday, to
secure depositors’ funds, which, he said,
have been exposed to grave danger, by the
arrests.
When contacted on the development last
night, a highly placed officer of the DSS
said the service was unmoved by the threat
of the strike,
“I dare them to try it. Nigeria will not
collapse. We might be forced to go public
with information we have on what they are
doing, both the governors and the bank
chiefs. If you tell Nigerians the whole truth
the citizens of some of these states would
want to stone their governors. It’s not only
the Jigawa case. Many governors are also
into it. Also, it is not about, nor is it
restricted to G7 governors. It cuts across.”
On the propriety of the DSS investigating
and arresting bankers, the officials directed
the CEOs to the statues setting up the
service.
“Our brief covers what we are doing. We
are empowered to investigate both security
and financial crimes that could have
security implications,” he insisted.
He further asked: “How can somebody steal
as much as N75billion that has the capacity
to upturn the entire economy and you say
you can’t investigate?”
He said that era of people using strike and
all manner of threat to blackmail security
officials from uncovering their dubious
ways have passed. “Let them go on strike
and we would get our bosses to address a
press conference to go public with what we
have uncovered,” he fired back.
Daily Sun gathered that the law actually
empowers DSS to probe financial crime.
Instrument 1 of May 1999 empowers the
service to carry out the prevention,
detection and investigation of: a) Threat of
espionage; b) threat of subversion; c)
threat of sabotage; d) economic crimes of
national security dimension; e) terrorist
activities; f) separatist and inter-group
conflicts; g) threat to law and order.
All efforts to get the CBN to comment on
the development proved abortive, as calls
to the line of the apex bank’s governor kept
saying it was switched off.
Similarly, he was yet to reply an SMS to
that effect as at press time last night.

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