IN what appears to be a move to make undue gains from 41,000 Bauchi state civil servants undergoing verification exercise, First City Monument Bank (FCMB) Plc is extorting money from the government workers in the name of BVN print out, WikkiTimes has exclusively gathered.

The workers, who visited the bank to obtain their Bank Verification Number, BVN, in order to meet up the requirement of the Verification Committee set up by the Bauchi State government, were asked by officials of the bank to deposit N525 as condition to obtaining the BVN.

“If a customer fails to deposit the money, he or she will not be attended to,” said a visibly angry civil servant undergoing the verification exercise in one of the LGAs in Bauchi.

“When I visited the bank to obtain my BVN, I was told that I have to pay N525 before getting the BVN print out. If you have money in the account, they will just deduct the N525, and if one does not have, one is asked by the bank officials to deposit the money before you are even attended to,” said Hamisu Isa, one of the affected workrers.

Hamisu revealed that at the time he visited the bank to obtain his BVN, there were many of civil servants who had come there for the same purpose. “And I’m authoritatively telling you that all of us at the bank were asked to pay the same amount of money before obtaining our BVN,” he said.

He said he was surprised when he learned that it was only FCMB that was extorting the said money from the civil servants before allowing them to obtain BVN.

“If the officials of the bank realize that you do not have the money, they will require you to get out and look for alternatives before you are attended to,” said another civil servant who pledged anonymity.

“We were surprised when we discovered that it was only FCMB that was extorting money from civil servants. As for me, I had to borrow money from my friend to deposit the amount because I didn’t receive my October salary,” revealed another worker who was yet to be verified as at the time he spoke to WikkiTimes.

Another worker who identified himself as Hassan Isah said “when I visited the Bank to get my BVN, I was asked to see the bank manager, who referred me to where I can obtain the BVN, there, I was asked to deposit the N525 before they print it out for me. And you know, the bank manager will not stamp your paper if you didn’t pay the money,” Isah said.

Isah who visited the bank on November 6, said that he had no money in his account when he was asked to deposit the N525.

“I had to beg my friend to transfer me N600 into my bank account before I got my BVN print out and stamped by the bank manager”.

But the committee set up by the Bauchi State government to verify the authenticity of the over 41,000 suspected ghost workers and pensioners on its payroll says it has not asked any of the affected persons to submit their BVN.

Speaking to newsmen in Bauchi, the Secretary of the Committee, IsiakaTijjani, said the government has not issued such directive to anybody, adding that the affected workers were doing that on their own.

“We are yet to start dealing with the affected workers individually, and may be they are doing that to equip themselves”, says Tijjani.

On the amount charged by FCMB, Tijjani said the fee was exorbitant.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/fcmb-extorts-money-from-bauchi-workers-undergoing-bvn-verification/