After weeks of insinuations that he was forced to proceed on compulsory leave or sacked owing to boardroom squabbles and fraud among others, Henry James Semenitari, Group Managing Director of Unity Bank Plc, on Sunday said he was neither fired nor suspended.
He said he duly got approval to proceed on vacation.
Semenitari confirmed in an exclusive telephone interview with Daily Independent that he resigned his appointment after 18 months in the saddle.
He became GMD on January 9, 2004. Before then, he had served as Executive Director, Public Sector of the bank.
According to him, “I resigned to follow up on some other endeavours. I went on leave and just came back,” he stressed, denying reports of a board crisis at the bank.
Semenitari wondered where the story of his sack emanated from, despite the impressive performance of the bank that should ordinarily make the board and shareholders happy.
He told our correspondent: “You have seen our numbers and our result (full year and quarterlies)
“There is no power game anywhere on the board,” he said, urging journalists to realise that more harm is done to quoted companies through unsubstantiated negative reports, which endangers the lives of corporate entities, just as the wellbeing of staff, depositors (in the case of a bank), shareholders and other stakeholders.
Semenitari, stressed that he had no problem with anybody, maintained that he had said the truth and nothing but the truth.
“I am being very honest with you. I have been on vacation. If you send someone on compulsory leave, won’t there be a letter? Before you sack or send someone on suspension, there would be a disciplinary committee set up,” he pointed out, adding that there was nothing of such in this instance.
Semenitari, 50, also a former executive director with the defunct Afribank Nigeria Plc told Daily Independent that he never faced any disciplinary committee for any offence committed to warrant a compulsory leave, suspension or being sacked by the board.
He assured that he is leaving Unity Bank without quarrel or rancour, insisting that: “I am fine.”
There had been reports that he resigned from with the bank, because of what a source close to Unity Bank said followed a board resolution that he proceeds on compulsory leave after a workers’ revolt, amidst damaging allegations centered around alleged fraud and unethical practices.
The ex-GMD’s dilemma began few months back, the source explained, when some staff petitioned an influential major shareholder of the bank, who then instructed the chairman, Thomas Etuh, to appoint a forensic auditor to investigate the allegations.
He would be remembered, he recently told The European, for pulling Unity Bank “from a financial loss position of N33 billion as at December 2013 which we inherited, to a profit before tax of N13.6 billion as at December 2014 financial year, being our first year of management.
“We also raised capital by way of rights issue which was oversubscribed. Rights issue being, calling on existing shareholders to exercise their rights to bring in capital, this we did in excess of N40 billion,” he said.
“I’m glad to let you know that from less than 100,000 active customer accounts in January 2014, we now have an active customer base in excess of 800,000 accounts,” he added.
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