Mass sack of directors triggers anger at CBN

There were indications on Monday that the Central Bank of Nigeria has sacked at least five directors in what looked like the commencement of a reorganisation process at the apex bank.

According to reliable sources, the affected officials had already received termination notices since March 15, 2024.

Those affected were believed to have worked in the bank for more than 20 years or more, but now asked to go home.

Although details and reasons for the sack of these top officials still appeared quite unclear, sources within the bank revealed that the directors affected were in the Trade and Exchange Department, Securities Department, Development Finance Department, as well as Purchasing and Support Services Department.

These directors, according to sources, were initially reassigned to FSS 2020; a division of the bank under the Governor’s Directorate located in the Maitama District of Abuja on November 24, 2023, and kept in a holding pattern for further directives.

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Samuel Chukwuyem Okojere, Abdulmumin Abdulsalam Isa, Dr. Elizabeth Amos Kwaghe, Dr. Maureen Omolola Chukwurah, and Mr. Arinze Stanley were among the directors who were transferred to the FSS 2020 division on November 24, 2023.

They are now angry that in spite of putting in those years, the new management has decided to relieve them of their appointment, with or without severance benefits.

According to sources privy to the issue, some of the directors have been asked to go without pay because they were allegedly indicted by Jim Obaze, the Special Investigator appointed last year by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to probe Godwin Emefiele, a former CBN governor.

Obaze submitted a damning report last December to the president which indicted some top officials of the bank, including former Deputy Governors and some departmental directors.

While the deputy governors have since been sacked from their positions, some directors who were indicted in the report were still holding on to their positions, according to sources in the bank.

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The sacked directors were said to be putting up a fight as they were trying to contest their sack in the court, because they believed that they had not committed any offence to warrant their exit from the bank.

The affected directors, according to the sources, have the sympathy of their colleagues who consider the termination of their appointment to be unfair, particularly on the basis that some of them have not been indicted by the presidential investigator.

“Their grouse is that no cogent reason was stated in the letter for the termination of their appointment. These are high profile officials who have served the bank for many years, and are now asked to go because a new CBN governor is in office,’ a source said on Monday.