By Bimbola Oyesola
Organised Labour under the umbrella of the National Union of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions Employees ( NUBIFIE), has petitioned the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, to arrest and prosecute two of its former National executive members, over alleged frauds running into N30 million.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday and signed by the Acting General Secretary of NUBIFIE, Odiaka Jude Nwanji, the union said the report of an arrest of NUBIFIE President was not true, adding that the president of the union was not arrested. The statement said: “the President of NUBIFIE was not arrested at any time as insinuated by the report, neither was any official of the union.
“The person purported to have been arrested was arrested in connection to false affidavits deposed to before a honourable court in a conspired effort to get an injunction to stop the IG Police amongst others from prosecuting him and his collaborators over allegations of fraud which they have perpetrated in NUBIFIE before and after they were duly suspended from office, and this, involves two suspended national officers amongst others.”
However, Nwanji emphasised in the statement that NUBUFIE is an affiliate of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), and not the newly launched United Labour Congress (ULC).
He said: “It is a known fact with the Registrar of Unions, the general membership of the union and the written constitution of NUBIFIE that NUBIFIE is an affiliate of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), and at no time was the constitution amended to reflect anything contrary.
“Therefore, the mention of NUBIFIE as an affiliate of ULC as publicized amounts to poaching and criminal subversion of a trade union. To this end, the National Administrative Council (NAC) has forwarded a petition to the IG Police to urgently prosecute the culprits.”
He said the former official who were suspended have been found to have allegedly “diverted N2.94million gift given to the union by Zenith Bank, about N36m National Delegates Conference levy funds which was approved by NAC for the purpose of the conference in 2015; N5m diverted and stolen through a WEMA account and over N23m diverted and stolen through a Skye Bank account, operating secret and unapproved accounts.”