Union Threatens to Picket First Bank, Zenith Bank, 6 Others

**Accuses Banks of Illegally Trading With Pensioners’ N700m

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

Eight banks operating in Nigeria have been accused of being unprofessional for refusing to return money mistakenly paid into accounts of former workers of the defunct Nigeria Airways Limited (NAL) domiciled with the affected financial institutions by federal government last year.

As a result of this, the union representatives of the former airline workers have given the concerned banks one-week ultimatum which ends this week to return the money or be ready for a showdown.

Former workers of airways said should the banks fail to return the money this week, they will picket the banks first thing next Monday.

The refusal of the banks to refund the money is said to be slowing down the ongoing payment of the last batch of the former workers entitlements.

A report by The Nation said the Office of Accountant General is also at loggerheads with the eight banks for the alleged unauthorised withholding of over N700 million paid in error into the said accounts.

The N700 million represented the extra money that was mistakenly paid into the account of some of the former workers who were paid twice by the government.

The payment came after a verification exercise on the former workers of the defunct national carrier. The N700 million overpayment was part of the N22 billion approved by government as the final N45 billion severance entitlements approved for former workers of liquidated Nigeria Airways Limited.

Quoting a source, The Nation said efforts made by the Accountant General and the National Union of Pensioners (NUP), representatives of the workers to make the banks refund the money to the Accountant General’s office have not yielded positive results.

Rather than return the N700 million into the accounts of the affected workers, the banks have failed and are allegedly trading with the money.

The eight banks affected include the First Bank which is said to be in possession of the lion share of 80 percent of the money in question.

Other banks include: Diamond Bank, Fidelity Bank, Polaris Bank, Zenith Bank, Stanbic IBTC Bank and Ecobank.

However, while the eight banks failed to comply with the agreement to refund the money, few others are said to have voluntarily returned the money mistakenly paid into the accounts and they are GTBank, Keystone Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Unity Bank and UBA.