Wema Bank workers back CBN, NDIC intervention

Odidison Omankhanlen, Lagos - 25.03.2008

Wema Bank staff members have described the intervention of the regulatory authorities in the affairs of the bank as not only timely, but also the best decision to salvage the bank from imminent collapse.

At an all-staff congress held in Lagos on Monday, the staff members, who cut across top management, senior, junior, subsidiaries and domestic unit union members, said the regulatory authorities, especially the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), should be allowed to complete their work, adding that it was the only way the rot in the bank could be uncovered and cleared.

According to their spokesperson, Alhaji Akorede Olorunsogo, Manager, Special Credit and Recovery Unit, the staff took time to intervene in the crisis because of the conservative nature of the banking business, stressing that after a thorough review of the situation in the bank, they decided that the present action of the regulators should go un-impeded if the bank must move forward.

He described as false, the purported directive from the Presidency that the suspended Group Managing Director, Mr. Adebisi Omoyeni, should be restored, explaining that the Presidency only at the weekend told the regulators to handle and resolve the crisis.