EFCC: “Nigerians finding it difficult to access their funds at any bank and suspect foul play should contact the commission, for immediate intervention.”
By Emma Ogbuehi
As various interest groups continue to sabotage the monetary policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) waded in strongly on Monday.
The anti-fraud agency announced on Monday that it had nabbed the operations manager of a commercial bank in Abuja for refusing to avail bank customers the new naira notes.
But the Commission refused to name the offending bank.
Twitting on its verified twitter handle, EFCC Nigeria, @officialEFCC, the anti-fraud agency wrote:
“An Operations Manager of a leading Commercial bank in the Abuja Central Area was on Monday, February 6, 2023, arrested by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for refusing to load the Automated Teller Machines, ATMs, of the bank despite having N29million of the redesigned Naira notes in the branch’s vaults.
“Before he was whisked away for further questioning, the operatives ordered the loading of all the ATMs and the payment of the stipulated amount across the counter to the delight of the distraught customers who had spent hours in queues without getting the new notes.
“This discovery, which indicates a sabotage of the government’s monetary policy by some banks, was made by the EFCC in continuation of the ongoing surveillance and visit to banks across the country to access their vaults and verify whether they were deliberately refusing to dispense the redesigned Naira notes. More than five bank branches were covered today by the operatives in Abuja. Similar exercises are ongoing in Zonal Commands across the country.
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“The operation will continue until normalcy is restored to the banking system.
“Nigerians finding it difficult to access their funds at any bank and suspects foul play should contact the commission, for immediate intervention.”
But Nigerians who responded to the tweet were unhappy that EFCC was hiding the name of the bank.
They also tasked the EFCC to find out the motives of the alleged culprits and why they were sabotaging the government’s monetary policy.
Ayomide, @ilufemiloyei, tweeted, “Please, question their motives. We need to know why they are keeping the notes.”
Salisu A. Ibrahim, @Charderss, said, “This information is incomplete as we need to know the bank name, the branch name and the arrested official to serve as a deterrent to others. Anything short of that amounts to mere speculation or cover up.”
Others said the sting operation should be extended to other parts of Nigeria.
“Monitoring team to come to the banks in Owerri in Imo State. None of the bank’s ATMs is dispensing and they are not paying across the counter, keep saying that they don’t have money! Come check their vault! Enforcement Exercise shouldn’t be only in FCT,” wrote Berry Peter Obi Daughter, @Ellacious_berry.
