Ex-Fidelity Bank MD, successor fight dirty as Okonkwo faces probe

One of Nigeria’s commercial retailing bank, Fidelity Bank PLC is currently in the cynosure of watchers of banks as the former Managing Director of the bank, Mr. Nnamdi Okonkwo and his successor in office, Mrs Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe are fighting dirty over some alleged suspicious transactions when Okonkwo held sway.

An insider source confided in CAPITAL POST penultimate week that when the erstwhile Managing Director of the bank was in office, he handled the affairs with high handedness and never carried some management staff of the bank along, one of whom is his female successor.

Okonkwo’s resentment for some management staff deepened at the twilight of his exit as he never prefer Onyeali-Ikpe to succeed him and in what look like a retaliatory time, Onyeali-Ikpe has vowed to tackle her former boss.

Sources revealed that Onyeali-Ikpe was ready to open can of worms, even as she was said to have discovered some discrepancies by the former Managing Director that were obviously against the ethics of the bank.

In Okonkwo’s time as the Managing Director, Fidelity Bank had been in the eye of the storm particularly with regard to the erstwhile Minister of Petroleum Resources and now fugitive, Mrs Alison-Madueke.

Okonkwo allegedly received $115 million from the ex-Minister, a situation that led to his arrest after the collapse of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration in 2015 by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

Confirming the pendency of the case, a staff of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission who didn’t want his name in print said, the anti-graft agency will continue with the case as the current Chairman was interested in ensuring that all cases pending in Courts across the country are expeditiously discharged.

Meanwhile, CAPITAL POST further learnt that Onyeali-Ikpe was irked by the continued iron cast loyalty of some senior staff to the erstwhile Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer few months after he has left, hence, she has to fight back to establish her foothold.

In fighting back, she has approached the Board of Directors with two proposals which was approved. Firstly, that her predecessor be investigated and secondly that some staff of the Bank be retired.

The Board of Directors didn’t waste time in the approval of her request, given that they have previously expressed concern on some activities of the former MD that was considered not ethical in the banking sector.

About 300 senior and mid-level staff were relieved of their appointment, with majority of them suspected to be those loyal to the ex-Managing Director.