In the huge rush to beat the Bank
Verification Number enrollment deadline which is June 30th, 2015 however,
customers of an old generation bank engaged in a brawl with members of staff of
the bank in the banking hall in Enugu State.
Customers were gripped by fear over
the reports that their bank accounts will be frozen if they don’t enroll before
the deadline.
The insistence on the BVN by bank
cashiers before attending to customers also increased such fear.
The development led to an unusually
large turnout of customers at banking halls in the Coal City and this has been
happening since the beginning of the week.
However, the matter took a different
turn at an old generation bank, located in the Independence Layout area of
Enugu on Thursday.
Trouble started when security
personnel and operations staff of the financial institution asked some
customers to go outside the banking hall to wait their turn.
About 100 customers, who had been at
the bank since 6am, had trooped into the banking hall when the doors were
opened by 8am.
In a bid to maintain order, the bank
officials asked the first 10 among the customers to fill the BVN forms and join
about 30 others who did not complete the registration the previous day.
The other customers were told to
leave the banking hall, and wait outside.
But the directive did not go down
well with the customers, who protested, causing commotion in the banking hall.
The situation degenerated into a
full blown fight when some customers violently resisted an attempt by the bank
officials to lead them out of the banking hall.
In the ensuing fracas, a young man
engaged an armed riot policeman, who was attached to the bank, in a fight,
while another customer exchanged blows with a bank worker.
The situation further escalated as
some customers, who wanted to capitalise on the confusion to move to the front
of the queue, were physically resisted by those who were already there.
Normalcy eventually returned after
other bank security personnel, who were outside, stormed the banking hall to
overpower the violent customers.
The branch manager of the bank later
announced that the bank would open on Saturday to continue the enrollment.
The branch manager, who did not
disclose her name, complained that the customers had waited until the last
minute before coming to enroll for the BVN.
– Punch
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