The Adamawa House of Assembly has summoned the managements of Yola main branches of United Bank for Africa (UBA) and Zenith Bank, to appear before it on Tuesday (today) and explain their refusal to release salary of civil servants.
The development followed complaints Monday on the floor of the House by the Commissioner for Local Government, Alhaji Mohammed Barkindo, and that of Finance, Alhaji Mahmud Sali.
The commissioners alleged that the banks are holding the subventions of the state and local governments for April and May, while refusing to pay workers salaries as directed by the state government.
Barkindo said his ministry, as usual, wrote to UBA to pay the salaries of local government staff after the allocations from the federation account, but the bank refused.
Barkindo said UBA claimed that their refusal was based on orders from above and wonder who the above was since the account belong to Adamawa state, while Gov. Bindow is still the governor and had approved the payment of salaries.
Barkindo noted that Adamawa Local Governments were not indebted to UBA as the N5 billion loan collected by the local governments from the bank last year had been settled.
Also speaking with regards to salary of state workers, the Commissioner of Finance, Mahmud Sali, said letter of authority signed by him, Accountant General and Gov. Muhammadu Bindow, was rejected by the bank.
Sali said he made three attempts to give the bank the letter but it refused to collect same, adding that the state had about N3 billion in it account with the Zenith bank.
Deliberating on the matter, the Deputy Speaker of the House, Mr Lusambani Dilli, said the attitude of the banks to the out-going administration, was unfortunate.
Dilli described the action of the banks as a deliberate attempt to punish the people of Adamawa.
He suggested that the management of the two banks be summon to appear before the House by 10 am today to explain their actions.
The plenary, presided by the Speaker, Alhaji Kabiru Mijinyawa, unanimously passed a motion summoning the management of the bank to appear.
In mild drama that issued immediately after house sitting that ended around 4.30 pm, officials of Ministry of Finance led by the Commissioner drove to Zenith Bank and attempted to give the letter from Gov. Bindow authorizing the bank to pay workers salary, but the bank staff refused to collect the letter saying the have close work for the day.
The manager of the bank on sighting the ministry officials rushed into a toilet to avoid them.
Many observers said the action of the banks against the out-going administration of Bindow could have been prompted by the in-coming administration of governor-elect, Ahmadu Fintiri.
