The crisis in the leadership of First Bank Holdings of Nigeria worsened on Wednesday, as a group of stakeholders called for the removal of its board chairman, Femi Otedola, and non-executive director, Mr. Julius B. Omodayo-Owotuga.
The group, therefore, called for an immediate Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) in the next 21 days in line with section 215 (1) of CAMA.
The group shareholders alleged that FBN has not known peace since the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, influenced Otedola’s acquisition of a significant amount of shares that led to his emergence as Chairman of FBN Holdings in January 2024.
According to the shareholders, with Otedola as Chairman, his personal staff, Omodayo-Owotuga at the Holdco, and yet another personal staff at the bank, Otedola has seized full control of the bank and does as he pleases.
Thus, with the private placement of N360 billion shares, other shareholders fear he would clearly have absolute control, expressing fears of disregard for corporate governance principles.
“This is to enable him (Otedola) to take full control during the proposed N360 billion private placement. But some of the shareholders are saying instead of a private placement for shares of the bank, it should be by right issue or public offer,” a source who doubled as a stakeholder said anonymously.
However, it was further alleged that Otedola’s preference for private placement is seen as a ploy to gain control and run the financial institution as his private estate.
In the last months, FBN Holdings has been a subject of battle over who holds the single largest share of the institution.
The battle for the soul of FBH is between Otedola and Barbican Capital, which is affiliated with the Oba Otudeko-owned Honeywell Group.
First Bank Holdings, in its audited accounts for 2023, had put Otedola as the single largest shareholder with a 9.41 percent stake in the financial institution. Otedola, however, has recently increased his shareholding by massive acquisition of more shares. At the moment, his exact stake is unclear.
But data from the Central Securities Clearing System, CSCS, the widely accepted source for confirming share ownership, has Barbican Capital, which is affiliated with the Oba Otudeko-owned Honeywell Group, as the largest single shareholder with a 15.01 percent stake.
Records kept by the bank’s registrars, Meristem Registrars & Probate Services Ltd, also showed that Barbican Capital is the single largest shareholder with 5,386,397,202 shares (5.38 billion) as of May 23, 2024.
Consequently, Barbican Capital had sued FBN Holdings for wrongly stating its shareholding in its audited financial statement.
First Bank recently laid off about 100 senior staff members in a major organisational shakeup.
Reports had indicated that the bank’s top executives were asked to leave—as part of its corporate restructuring and repositioning plan for 2025—following the confirmation of Olusegun Alebiosu as FBN’s managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) in June last year.
There were also allegations that the exits were part of a concerted effort by Otedola to introduce new hands into several leadership positions in the bankm
Meanwhile, it is still unclear what the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) would do in the wake of this CAMA-induced demand for an EGM called to remove Otedola and stop the private placement of the bank shares.
FBN has yet to issue any statement on the matter.
