All is not well at one of the nation’s top financial institutions Wema Bank as what started out as a routine changing of the guard threatens to snowball into a raging inferno that consumes several longstanding staff and turns the rapidly-growing bank into a house divided against itself.

No sooner had the dust settled on the retirement of Wema’s long-serving Managing Director Olusegun Oloketuyi than his successor Ademola Adebise allegedly launched a plot to oust some top bank employees from their positions and install his people in their place.

Certain bank insiders who would like to remain anonymous claimed to The Lagos Times that the new MD/CEO who came to power just two weeks ago has already shown the door to five bank managers. Their crime: they are accused of being loyal to the retired MD Oloketuyi.

Adebise who has been in the Wema Bank system since 2009 is allegedly targeting all the loyalists of the old regime, especially those who followed Oloketuyi to Wema from Skye Bank. He allegedly wants them out at all costs so as to stamp his own imprints into the day-to-day running of the bank and pave the road towards writing his own legacy.

Recall that the departed MD joined Wema at a time it was struggling to break even after the global economic crisis of 2008. Under his stewardship Wema Bank made a turn for the better and, since regaining its national banking license, has become one of the most vibrant and innovative banks in the country.

Oloketuyi presided over New technological innovations that helped Wema rapidly reposition itself as the bank to beat. The introduction of ALAT, the country’s first wholly digital banking platform, garnered accolades and awards from numerous quarters.

Upon his retirement he must have thought he was leaving the bank in the hands of an able former deputy who would continue his good work. The opposite seems to be the case as Adebise has allegedly moved to erase all traces of his predecessor  from the bank.

Allegedly, several high profile heads have already rolled. The bank’s head of human resources tops the list of those who are rumoured to have lost their plum jobs as the new regime moves to consolidate power. More names have allegedly been pencilled down for the next round of firings.

Insiders disclosed that the recent spate of sackings has led to a tense atmosphere at the self-acclaimed longest surviving and most resilient indigenous bank in Nigeria. Everyone is said to be on tenterhooks as they await the next victim of Adebise’s alleged purge.