Appeal to President Buhari on Savanah Bank

By Babajide Komolafe
The above is the summary of the response from Mr. Chinedu Okoli, one of the depositors of Savannah Bank in his response to the last edition titled, “What should the depositors of Savannah Bank do?

President Muhammadu Buhari



Writing from Enugu, he said, “Thank you for bringing up the Savannah Bank saga and plight of the depositors. Honestly when I read this topic on Vanguard for the first time last month and the consistent write up that followed week after week, I cried.
I cried because this is the first time a newspaper house (Vanguard) has actually written about the pains and struggles of depositors of Savannah Bank since the withdrawal of its licence in February 2002 (13 years now).
What happened to us depositors of Savannah Bank has never happened to any bank depositor in the history of banking anywhere in the world. This is the only bank that is operating as a living and at the same time a dead bank for 13 years. Living bank in the sense that since 2009 it had its licence restored, dead in the sense that it has remained un-operational since 13 years.
Honestly speaking it will be too late now to institute legal action against CBN and management of Savannah Bank, because after 13 years of closure, If we go to court now, we may spend a total of 13 years from high court to Supreme Court.
The only genuine option now is to bring this issue before our current president, incorruptible President Mohammdu Buhari.I plead with you to publish and address our plight to Mr. President consistently just as you have being doing, he can mandate CBN to bring this saga to logical conclusion.”Okoli definitely has a point.
Going to court might worsen the plight of the depositors of Savannah Bank. But that is supposed to be the last option after dialogue or engagement with the CBN and management of Savannah Bank has failed.
Furthermore, while the CBN has not given the slightest indication of its response to the lingering inability of the owners of the bank to reopen for business, there is the impression in many quarters that the CBN may not be willing to dabble or have another face-off with the owners of the bank.
Also, given that there are so many issues requiring urgent attention from President Buhari, it is not clear if he would have the time to pay attention or repond to an appeal from depositors of Savannah Bank.However, the worst thing to do in this matter, is, to do nothing. And that is what the depositors of Savannah Bank must not do.
In this regard, Vanguard Investors Forum is committed to supporting depositors of Savanah Bank in whatever reasonable plan of action proposed to recover their money trapped in the bank. This is because the suffering of the depositors reflects one of the huge defects in the financial sector architecture in Nigeria.
Consequently, we would assist depositors of the bank to seek the support of agencies or groups in the economy that could facilitate their engagement with the CBN and owners of the bank, with a view of bringing an end to the suffering of not being able to access their money trapped for 13 years in Savannah Bank. (Please send comments and enquiries to vanguardinvestorsforum@gmail.com).