A businesswoman, Mrs Uju Ohanenye, has petitioned the Managing Director, Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, Umaru Ibrahim, following the alleged failure by the NDIC to pay the N222.4m she purportedly lodged with Fortis Microfinance Bank, which liquidated in 2019.

Ohanenye, in a petition dated August 3, 2020, which was also copied to the Presidency, Department of State Services and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission as well as the Executive Director, Operations, NDIC, alleged that the corporation failed to alert the public to the mismanagement of depositors’ funds by Fortis bank.

Attached to the petition was the fixed deposit certificate for N301m issued by Fortis bank.

According to her, the Central Bank of Nigeria released N2bn to Fortis bank customers after the financial institution became distressed but the businesswoman got only N200,000 from the NDIC.

Ohanenye, who has a charity organisation, Kenuj shower of love, stated that the refusal of the NDIC to pay the N222.4m had negatively impacted on her charity.

She accused the corporation of allowing the Fortis bank management to defraud customers, noting that the NDIC had been negligent in the discharge of its duties.

Ohanenye said her husband required money for urgent treatment of heart disease, noting that he had been unable to access medical attention following the refusal of the NDIC to refund the trapped deposit.

But the NDIC spokesperson, Dr Sunday Oluyemi, denied that the corporation got N2bn from the CBN, saying, “There is a law governing NDIC operations guiding the maximum we can pay when a bank fails, and when Fortis bank failed, the Central Bank and NDIC set up an interim management committee which was given some money to settle some depositors. We have paid the depositors the maximum depositors insurance coverage which is N200,000 for microfinance banks and N500,000 for commercial banks.”