Ex-Bank Manager goes on hunger strike for non-payment of entitlements

This one is a very serious matter oooh! A former senior manager of the defunt Hallmark Bank Plc., Olubiyi Odunaro, 53, has embarked on hunger strike to protest against non-payment of his terminal benefit.

The ex-banker has turned a garden on Mobolaji Bank-Anthony Way into his new home, vowing to remain there until he is paid his benefits.

Odunaro whose suicide mission began November 12, said he embarked on the protest to expose the insensitivity of the Federal Government to pay the terminal entitlements of over 14,000 employees of the 14 banks that failed to meet up with the recapitalization policy.

He alleged he wrote President Goodluck Jonathan on October 24 informing him of his decision if the agencies concerned did not pay them their entitlements on or before October 31.

He said: “I feel downcast with the turn of events in our country and I drew the passion to embark on a hunger strike from my disenchantment to the deliberate denial of common citizens’ rights.”

Hallmark Bank was one of the banks which did not meet the Central Bank of Nigeria’s recapitalization policy in 2005 resulting in its folding up.