By Mustapha Adamu
Skye Bank PLC has sacked its four executive directors as part of the bank’s reorganization of the top management staff.
The affected executive directors are Markie Idowu, executive director, Retail and Lagos Commercial Bank; Abimbola Izu, executive director, Corporate Banking; Idris Yakubu, executive director, South-South/ SEED Directorate and; Bayo Sani, executive director, Enterprise-Wide Risk Management.
The crisis manifested in the bank when the immediate past group managing director of the bank, Timothy Oguntayo, was forced by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to resigned on July 4 last year alongside three executive directors and the board after flouting credit policies and plunging the bank into liquidity crisis.
When the new board came, it reorganized the structure, changing Bayo Sani from ED Lagos and South West to ED Enterprise-Wide Risk Management; Idris Yakubu, from ED North to ED South-South/ SEED Directorate; Abimbola Izu, from Legal and Corporate Services and company secretary to ED Corporate Banking; Markie Idowu, from Technology and Services Delivery to ED Retail and Lagos Commercial Bank.
“These new departments/postings are largely performance driven. So they might encounter challenges. The postings and the belief that they were party to the previous crisis in the bank caused a serious disaffection at the management level,” said a competent source who preferred not to be named.
Although the CEO of the bank, Tokunbo Abiru said in a memo sent to staff of the bank on Friday that the four EDs “resigned voluntarily”, inside sources told DAILY NIGERIAN that the quartet were “basically sacked” but given “soft-landing to resign”.
“I wish to announce the restructuring of key leadership positions in the bank following the voluntary resignation of four Executive Directors from the service of our Bank today,” Mr Abiru said in the memo, listing the affected officers and their portfolios.
“Kindly note that the resignation of the Directors is voluntary and in line with the key leadership restructuring in the bank.
“I will like to thank the outgoing Executive Directors for their service to the bank, in particular the roles they played in stabilizing the bank after the regulatory induced intervention of July 4, 2016.
“I will also like to use this opportunity to implore that we all remain focused on delivery of excellent banking services to our clients at this time.
“In the days ahead, more appointments will be made to further strengthen our focus on the service of our customers,” the memo said.
