CBN Sacks All Board Members Of First Bank Of Nigeria

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)  has announced the immediate removal of all of the directors of First Bank Nigeria Limited as well as FBN holdings.

On Thursday April 29, the Central Bank sacked all board members of First Bank Nigeria Ltd and First Bank of Nigeria Holdings Plc.

Central Bank had earlier queues First over the removal of its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Adesola Adedunta and replacing him with Gbenga Shobo.

The announcement comes on the heels of the CBN’s ultimatum to First Bank to call in a credit facility extended to Honeywell Flour Mills.

While there has been no official statement naming exactly who was sacked, here’s the composition of the board of First Bank of Nigeria: The Executive director, corporate banking, Remi Oni, Executive director/Public sector group, Abdullahi Ibrahim, Deputy Managing director, Olugbenga Francis Shobo, and the Chairman of the board, Ibukun Awosika.

As at the time of this article, we understand that U.K Eke, the group MD of FBN holdings will retain his position so at first glance, it appears that some of the firing is selective.

Nevertheless, one of the important points in the CBN’s announcement is the return of Dr. Sola Adedutan as the MD/CEO of FirstBank of Nigeria.  the board of First Bank had earlier announced Adedutan’s retirement and appointed Gbenga Shobo in his place.

The CBN had also warned FirstBank in a separate memo that Adedutan’s removal was improper because his tenure had not elapsed. The Apex Bank also said that it received no notification of the entire process.

Also, the CBN has announced a new board of directors for FirstBank.