Late Gen. Tunde Idiagbon a former Chief of Staff of Supreme
Headquarters About still has his N30million life savings trapped in the defunct
Savannah Bank for the 13th year.
All attempts by the family to get the cash over the years
have failed.
According to source - It is understood that the family only
got N10million as compensation from the Kwara State Government for the
deceased's farmland at Malete which was
worth N100million.
Idiagbon, was the deputy to General Muhammadu Buhari when he
served as military head of state between January
1, 1984 and August 1985, died on March 24, 1999 .
The Idiagbon family, as gathered by source, notified former
President Goodluck Jonathan of their predicament in a letter to him towards the
end of his tenure.
The family which is said to have been left stranded on the
strength of the unavailability of the funds is now seeking justice to get its
trapped funds from the owners of Savannah Bank.
A highly-placed source said:
"The family wrote ex-President Jonathan on the trapped
funds. The records are there in the presidency. As it is now, there is no hope
of getting the N30million for the family unless there is an intervention by the
presidency.
"This Nigerian served his country diligently and his
life-savings should not be allowed to be lost like that. I think the
intervention will also enable the presidency to look into the case of other
depositors of Savannah Bank.
"Another issue which came up in the letter had to do
with payment of N10million compensation to the family by the Kwara State
Government for Idiagbon's farmland in Malete which the family said was worth N100million.
"The family is however not joining issues with the
state government other than to set the records straight and put all issues in
perspective. Ordinarily, this is a family that should not suffer because its
patriarch did not embezzle public funds."
It was unclear if Idiagbon's final entitlements were paid by
the military regime of ex-President Ibrahim Babangida, but the family is after
redress for the N30million trapped in Savannah Bank.
The operating license of Savannah Bank was revoked in
February 2002 by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). But the owners of the bank
went to court to challenge the revocation.
They asked the court to stop the Nigeria Deposit Insurance
Corporation (NDIC) from taking over the assets of the bank.
Reprieve came for the owners on October 20, 2006 , when an Abuja High Court
declared the CBN's action as illegal.
The CBN also failed at the Court of Appeal when the
appellate court ordered the re-opening of Savannah Bank.
It asked the CBN and NDIC to pay N100 million to the bank as
damages.
After the judgment of the Court of Appeal, a former Chairman
of the Bank, Chief Jim Nwobodo said:
"The process of
re-launching the new Savannah Bank will be handled in a very deliberate manner
in order to ensure that we build a world-class institution that can compete
favourably with other banks in Nigeria
and indeed globally.
"In line with this, the bank has put together a very
strong team of advisers in virtually all business and technical areas to assist
in managing the takeover process as well as the business-planning activities
preparatory to the formal re-launch of the new bank.
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