Nigerians Protest Against Access Bank By Closing Accounts

Nigerians are protesting against Access Bank by closing their accounts and transferring their money to other banks following Access Bank's decision to freeze accounts belonging to some #EndSARS protesters.

Access Bank had defended its decision by stating that it had no choice but to freeze the accounts of the selected #EndSARS protesters due to a directive from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Access Bank said it operates in a regulated industry that is controlled by CBN.

In the statement released by Access Bank, the lender said it was compelled to comply with the regulatory directive. Access Bank blamed the restriction on a court order received from the Federal court, "It is common knowledge that we and the entire banking industry are regulated entities, and therefore operates under the authorities of our regulators and law enforcement agencies.

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However, Access Bank had frozen eight customers' accounts in order of CBN even before the CBN approached the court for an order of account restriction. Meanwhile, despite Access Bank freezing the EndSARS protesters account, Stanbic IBTC had insisted that it won't freeze its customers' accounts without a court order.

The founder of Stanbic IBTC, Atedo Peterside, had stated - at the time CBN was directing banks to freeze EndSARS protesters account - that nobody, except court, can make Stanbic IBTC freeze its customers' accounts - contradicting the claim of Access Bank that as a regulated entity, Access Bank had no choice.

Nigerians Move To Close Access Bank Accounts

In response to Access Bank, some Nigerians started calling for customers to close their accounts with Access Bank for the lender's role in CBN's clampdown of EndSARS protesters. These Nigerians said the best way to protest against Access Bank was to transfer their money and shut down their accounts since Access Bank couldn't defend the EndSARS protesters like Stanbic IBTC.

Due to the online protest, "access bank close" is now trending on social media, Twitter. A Sport Management expert, Opase Ayomi, said, "#EndSars Every Nigerian youth who was in support of #EndSars should transfer all their funds out and close their accounts. Access Bank picked a side without a court order. There is power in numbers. Please, guys, let them feel the pressure."

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Another Nigerian, Marketing and Strategic Communicator, Wale Adetona, said, "Stanbic IBTC declined the order from CBN to freeze #EndSARS  protesters bank account but Access Bank is doing unnecessary shalaye when they could have been like Stanbic too."

A Twitter user who identified herself as Natasha Gold, tweeted, "Dear @myaccessbank Since u don freeze #Endsars account we re part of Dem o, we re One. We are the Sóró soke Generation. Monday Morning, na long queue we dey form for Access bank to close Accounts."

Charity Organizer, Paul Obasi, said Access Bank refused to close his account when he demanded it, but insisted he will ensure the account is closed, "So I just left Access bank Wuse, formally diamond bank, they have refused to close our accounts, claiming they will loose their jobs, we will keep fighting! it is not about workers but about a corrupt institutions colluding with the government to suppress us. #BoycottAccessBank."