Not less than 12 banks in Ibadan, Oyo state capital were sealed on Monday, September 17, by the state government. This was done by the state?s Board of Internal Revenue concerning that alleged non-payment of environmental development levy spanning over three years.
The act of sealing the banks was carried out by two law enforcement teams from the board who stormed the banks, prevented the banks staff from continuing with their daily activities.
However, some officials of the banks tried to stop the teams from sealing their premises, but all efforts was to no avail as security agencies attached to the teams intervened, thereby rendering the bank officials powerless.
The affected banks are located in Dugbe, Ring Road, Challenge, Jericho, Bodies, Mokola and Iyaganku areas of Ibadan.
The amount owed by the banks according to the board ranged from N800,000 to N5m. The disruption of activities led to customers finding it impossible to access the premises while those inside had to leave through alternative routes.
As regards the incident, the chairman of the board: Bicci Alli made it clear that the banks were given enough notice, as letters were written to them and time to pay up their debt.
He explained:We wrote letters to them to perfect their books but they did not do the right thing. We published reminders in two national dailies but we did not get their response.”
It is unfortunate that we had to use this method to force them to do the right thing. It is a continuous exercise that will end at the end of the week.