Though the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has shifted the deadline for the conclusion of the Bank Verification Number (BVN) from the earlier date of June 30, to October 31, 2015, a pro-Democracy Non-governmental organisation – Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has condemned the decision of the apex bank’s decision to subject Nigerian account holders to untold hardship because of that deadline which it said was “unilaterally imposed”
In a press release signed by its Chairman, Comrade Emma Onwubiko and made available to the media in Abuja Tuesday, HURIWA called for the registration to be permanent and seamless rather than been undertaken in a military fashion.
The group said the introduction of this new rule without consultation with customers of Banks and the arbitrary decision to impose a deadline with consequences on how account holders can access their legitimate deposits is unconstitutional and amounts to abuse of authority even as the Rights group has called on the CBN to make the registration open and continuous for the simple logic that new account holders wouldn’t stop opening accounts with banks on June 30th 2015. The Rights group said the imposition of deadline and restrictions on genuine account holders amounted to a deprivation of economic and social rights provided for and protected by both chapters two and four of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and must be rescinded forthwith.
Besides, HURIWA said it is very unfair and indeed amounted to attempt by the CBN and the elites that control the banks to rob from the back doors hard earned deposits of the bank customers. HURIWA also called for protests by affected bank customers to be led by like-minded civil society organisations on tomorrow.
On the alternative, the group said it will open a public register so that customers who are affected adversely by the deadline for BVN registration to look at possibilities of filing class action suits at the Federal High Courts to be argued by lawyers on pro bono basis since majority of the bank customers to be deprived of their legitimate deposits are too poor to pay for hiring lawyers. HURIWA is therefore appealing to willing lawyers to contact us by checking us out on Google or Yahoo search engines.
It called on Godwin Emiefiele, the governor of CBN to either make the BVN registration a continuous exercise or be prepared to face avalanches of class lawsuits and other civil disobedience strategies to be worked out by like-minded human rights activists across Nigeria.
“The President must stop these broad day attempts by Bank owners to rob poor depositors of their hard earned financial resources under the guise of BVN registration with a militarised deadline. In many countries of the World these arbitrary measures to steal and divert depositors’ money such as BVN registration with compulsory but unilateral deadlines are treated as a crime against humanity. If Nigeria insists on practicing democracy then all these autocratic measures carried out without people’s inputs and consents must be consigned to the dustbin of history. This attempt to steal our money must be overturned. What happens to many Nigerians who have money in Nigerian banks but who are outside Nigeria for different reasons throughout this imposed period for BVN registration? This is pure robbery and must be defeated in a similar way that law enforcement authorities seek to crush criminals. We have already received calls from such depositors who currently are abroad for genuine reasons”.
It would be recalled that the BVN deadline had caused severe hardship for account holders in various banks across the country as they abandoned every other activity of theirs to ensure that they met the deadline before the close of work on Tuesday. Many of those who could not scale through, heaved sighs of relief when the CBN eventual announced a shift in deadline. It was not certain whether HURIWA still plans to go ahead with its proposed public protest after the CBN announcement. Efforts to get the reaction of Onwubiko on the matter proved abortive as his phone line was switched off at the time of filing this report.
