16 years after their disengagement by former employers, ex-banks’ staff members retrenched during the 2005 banking re-capitalization converged in an office located in a mechanics’ compound at Aina Eleko Street, Maryland, Lagos to urge the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and the National Deposit Insurance Commission, NDIC, to pay their severance benefits which the agencies have been delaying and for which they have obtained a judgment against the agencies.
Precisely, the group, identified as Association of Ex- Staff of Non-Consolidated Banks Nigeria, wants the two government agencies to obey the ruling of an Industrial Court sitting at Ikoyi, Lagos which directed that they should be paid off after their exit from five defunct banks and the successful sale of the banks 16 years ago.
The audience listened with disbelief as the Chairman of the group, Magnus Maduka, narrated the effects of their disengagement and non-payment of their severance benefits on their families and other dependants since 2006.
He said over 350 of his former colleagues are dead while many are warming up badly, if nothing is urgently done to enable them initiate proper treatment for their various ailments such as high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, ulcer and blindness among others