We gathered that the directors, who were employed by the
former governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele, would be served early retirement
letters this week.
According to Daily Trust, some directors were initially
redeployed to an arm of the bank, FSS 2020, under the Governor’s Directorate,
which worked closely with Emefiele.
The newspaper reported that the directors have worked from
the Directorate’s office located in the Maitama District of Abuja since 24the
November 2023, and are kept in a sort of pool to await “further directives.”
The newspaper said sources within the bank revealed that
some had already been served the disengagement letters since Friday, 15th March
2024, but could not state clearly under what terms those affected were
disengaged.
One of the sources said: “We don’t know whether they were
given early retirement or their appointments were terminated outright.”
The sources could not confirm if those being served early
retirement letters have been found guilty of any offences, adding that the news
of the planned sack has been widespread since Thursday last week.
One of the sources said the main reason for the sack of the
affected officials was “because they had worked very closely with the immediate
past governor of the bank, Mr. Godwin Emefiele”.
It was learned that the decision has raised great concern
amongst staff of the CBN, who fear that it could be a prelude to more layoffs
by the current management of the banking regulator.
Recall that the apex bank had relocated no fewer than 150
staff of the Banking Supervision Department (BSD), which is one of the 29
departments of the bank, to Lagos. The BSD is under the Financial System
Stability Directorate of the CBN.
The relocation saga, it would be recalled, had generated
heated controversy across the country, with many people of northern extraction
alleging that it was an attempt to dislodge staff who are northerners from the
institution.
But the CBN rebuffed those insinuations, insisting that it
was part of a proper reorganisation of the bank, to ensure that the regular
onsite examination of the 24 banks in the country was diligently carried out
since most of those national and regional banks are headquartered in Lagos.
It also adduced that part of the reason for the relocation
was the desire to de-congest the corporate headquarters of the bank.