The Lagos Times gathered that these days First Bank MD Adesola Adeduntan is the captain of a ship fighting desperately to stop his beloved vessel from being swallowed by the waves. First Bank, which he heads, is in danger of doing a Titanic and sinking under the load of heavy debt burden.
Having swallowed, hook, line and sinker, the cock-and-bull stories of some prominent barons of business, First Bank lent them huge loans running into billions of Naira only for these men to abscond with the money and leave the bank stumbling like a drunk man towards insolvency.
Determined to stop them from wallowing in a sea of debt, Adeduntan became the emergency lifeguard whose mission is to rescue the first generation bank by all means possible. But this has so far proved a herculean task even as he is boxed in by pressure from different quarters.
In a move designed to recover its money at all costs, the bank seized over 100 vessels belonging to some top names in the oil and gas industry who owe the bank billions in outstanding loans. The vessels are currently stowed on the high seas in Marina, opposite the bank’s headquarters.
Even so, seizing the assets of debtors is one thing; disposing of these assets is quite another. Those in the know informed that Adesola is in quite a fix at the moment as he ponders how best to liquidate these vessels of all shapes and sizes that have been wasting away at anchor.
Meanwhile, the pressure on Adesola daily grows like a fungus in sunlight even as he scrambles to find willing buyers for the vessels that have become an eyesore and resource drain. Those close to the astute GMD however claim he is currently in the strategy room and will soon launch a fresh and devastating counterstrike on the bank’s numerous debtors.
Some observers have called it a do-or-die matter for Adesola who they say is running out of time to prove wrong all those naysayers who have already gone to town singing elegies of First Bank’s decline under his tenure.