Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), a human rights advocacy group, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to reject a purported proposal to sell a commercial bank (Polaris Bank).
Polaris has refuted reports that the CBN is purportedly moving forward with the sale of the bank undercover.
In a statement issued by the group and signed by its national coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, the group claimed that selling the Commercial Bank would not only exacerbate the difficult economic situation that Nigerians were already experiencing, but would also be detrimental to the chances of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) winning the general elections in 2023.
HURIWA said: “President Buhari should immediately halt the illegal sale of the bank while urging him to avoid the negative effects of such a move on the APC. The CBN governor reportedly misinformed the President to authorise absurd deals, just as he misinformed the President to approve the sale of Exoon Mobil to Seplat and the associated bank and other transactions.
Remember how Emefiele was supposedly implicated in the absurd selling of the 104-year-old Union Bank by the young Titan Trust Bank? The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission ought to have looked into the CBN governor’s alleged actions, which are against Sections 9 and 11 of the CBN Act of 2007, but as usual, the former APC presidential candidate is an inviolable member of President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet.
“The CBN should be banned from purportedly selling off banks in the nation to friends and family as end-of-tenure incentives,” said the author.
In order to ease stress among the bank’s stakeholders and clients, the statement also urged the apex bank to make a statement outlining the bank’s position on the subject.
“It is alarming that the so-called sale lacks transparency and is shrouded in such much darkness,” claims HURIWA. “There was no tender, no public awareness campaign, nothing—just some sneaky and arrangee deal.
In particular, selling a bank that required over N1.2 trillion in rescue funds for an alleged N40 billion is outrageous and immoral.
