Group urges Buhari to halt plan sales of Polaris Bank

…Warns of negative effect on APC in 2023

Tunde Opalana, Abuja

President Muhammadu Buhari has been urged not to allow planned sales of one of the commercial banks in the country, Polaris Bank.

Recall that a news platform had recently reported that the CBN had allegedly proceeded with the processes of selling the bank on the excuse of being distressed.

Although the management of Polaris Bank Limited had debunked reports, describing it as a “fake news report”, urging the public to disregard it.

The Bank through a statement described the report as speculative and deliberately intended to create panic.

Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, (HURIWA), a civil rights advocacy group, urged the President to consider effects of allowing the bank to go under on the larger economy.

The group argued that selling of the bank will obviously lead to job loss and consequently affect the living conditions of retrenched workers and their dependants.

HURIWA further advised that it will not only compound the harsh economy Nigerians were going through but negatively affect the electoral fortune of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2023 general elections.

In a statement on Tuesday in Abuja, the national coordinator of HURIWA, Emmanuel Onwubiko, bemoaned what he allegedly described as lack of transparency and the shadiness in the reported sale of Polaris Bank allegedly by the CBN.

Charging President Buhari and his ruling party to prevent negative effect of such move , HURIWA said: “President Buhari should stop the illegal sale of the bank immediately. The CBN governor has apparently been misinforming the President to approve ridiculous sales just as he wrongly advised the President to approve the sale Exoon Mobil to Seplat and the attendant bank and forth.

“Recall that Emefiele was also allegedly fingered in the ridiculous sale of 104-year-old Union Bank by two-year-old Titan Trust Bank. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission should have probed the CBN governor over this allegation which is contrary to Sections 9 and 11 of the CBN ACT 2007 but as usual, the former presidential aspirant of the All Progressives Congress, is an untouchable cabinet member of President Muhammadu Buhari.

“The CBN should be stopped from allegedly selling off banks in the country to cronies and friends as end-of-tenure benefits.”

The group asked the CBN to come clear of the allegation by issuing a statement on the position of the bank, to douse tension among the customers and stakeholders of Polaris Bank.

“It is concerning that the so-called sale lacks transparency and is shrouded in so much darkness as no due diligence was not carried out, no tender, no advertisement to create public awareness, nothing, just some kangaroo and arrangee sale.

“To be exact, selling a bank which over N1.2 trillion was used to rescue at an alleged N40 billion is highly ridiculous and scandalous,” the statement added.