Lagos, Feb. 16, 2023 – The Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions on Thursday said the banking sector lost estimated N5 billion worth of properties to recent mob attacks and vandalism.
The Global Business News (GBN) reports that many banks had been attacked and their properties destroyed in recent demonstrations across the country over scarcity of naira notes
Its President, Oluwole Olusoji, who briefed a news conference in Lagos on Thursday, said that bank officials were also attacked aside from buildings burnt and Automated Teller Machines destroyed.
Olusoji said 17 bank branches had been attacked so far.
“Notwithstanding the insecurity due to the destruction of business premises within the banking industry and the impact on insurance organisations, we remain committed to go the extra mile in providing service to our customers in safe and secure environments.
“However, we value the lives of our members and colleagues and will not put them at any further risk.
“We have, therefore, put them on alert and shall instruct them, without further warning, to immediately stay away from their branches if these attacks on our members and facilities continue until such a time that they can be guaranteed of their personal safety and the security of their workplaces by the relevant authorities.
“We call on the public to desist from threatening or attacking our members, or destroying our properties as they will be only proverbially cutting their noses to spite their faces.
“We can only give what we have been provided with and nothing more,” he said. (GBN)