Opinion: Ifie Sekibo’s ‘Jungle-Justice’ Style Of Recovering Debts May Lead Heritage Bank To Extinction

About three days ago, Heritage Bank was in the news for sending some of their staffers to the residence of Anambra politician, Andy Uba to protest the refusal of the politician to pay up his debt to the bank.

According to information, He has been owing the bank for many years without paying back, therefore, the need for a corporate organisation to stage a protest at the resident of a customer.

At first, no one believed it was the highly rated Heritage Bank that staged the protest until a member of the corporate communications department confirmed to TRIXX NG that it was indeed true.

The biggest shocker was the statement of the Bank’s MD, Ifie Sekibo justifying the actions of the bank’s staffers, making it known that it was indeed in line with the bank’s debt recovery policy.

“Consequently, the recent visit of our colleagues was in line with our objective and solely to address the indebtedness of the customer’’

“I encourage us all to be bold and tenacious, fiercely engaging the market and refusing all forms of intimidation, which the current phase may present.”

Many were surprised with the statement of the MD on the situation at hand. After this, people have been asking if the bank didn’t request for a collateral when the loan was given out to the politician because it is known fact that there is no bank in Nigeria that give out loans without having a collateral equivalent to the money being requested for.

Meanwhile, in the early hours of today Thursday, 24^th of June 2021, news making rounds have it that Andy Uba has sued the bank for defamation of character and requested for N5 Billion for character damage with apologies on national dailies.

The issue has now become a legal issue with Heritage Bank at the receiving end because one would have expected that the bank employ’s legal way of recovering the debt instead of protesting which led to defamation of character.

As it is now, Heritage Bank has many things to lose which may include N5 Billion, Dignity, and patronage by influential individuals. Andy Uba may not end up losing anything if he wins the case against the bank in court because every ‘big man’ is a debtor somewhere, it’s not newsy.

Except the bank plead to settle the case out of court, Heritage Bank will struggle with so many things in the coming days which is capable of weighing the bank down. If all of these happens, then the MD, Ifie Sekibo should be held responsible for the jungle-justice approach of debt recovery.

Written By Ajanaku Olowolayemo