AFRIBANK SHAREHOLDERS SUE CBN OVER REVOCATION OF BANK'S LICENCE

By NBF News

LAGOS - Some shareholders of Afribank Plc have asked a Federal High Court, Lagos, to set aside the revocation of their bank's licence in its entirety by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.

The shareholders, through their counsel, Mr Onyebuchi Aniakor, had challenged the propriety of the revocation of their bank's licence by the CBN, insisting that the apex bank had ridiculed the judiciary with its action.

The shareholders are contending in a fresh application, that the action of the CBN was a calculated attempt to overreach their pending suit, which questions the legality of CBN's intervention in Afribank since 2009.

According to them, they were shocked to learn in the newspapers that the lincence of their bank had been revoked by the CBN, despite the pendency of their suit in court.

Justice James Tsoho had dismissed CBN's objection to the suit, holding that the CBN Governor,

Mallam Lamido Sanusi lacked absolute power to sack bank executives without disclosing the findings and recommendations of the special examination conducted into the books of the respective banks to the affected director.