First Bank Holdings of Nigeria’s leadership issue grew worse on Wednesday when a group of stakeholders demanded that Femi Otedola, the board chairman, and Mr. Julius B. Omodayo-Owotuga, the non-executive director, be fired.
In accordance with section 215 (1) of CAMA, the group has called for an emergency extraordinary general meeting (EGM) within the next 21 days.
Since Godwin Emefiele, the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, influenced Otedola to purchase a sizable number of shares, which resulted in his appointment as Chairman of FBN Holdings in January 2024, the group shareholders said that FBN has not experienced peace.
The shareholders claim that Otedola has taken complete control of the bank and is doing as he pleases with his personal staff, Omodayo-Owotuga at the Holdco, and another personal staff member at the bank.
Other shareholders are therefore concerned that he would have complete control and might use First Bank as his piggy bank without corporate governance, checks, and balances, as a result of the private placement of N360 billion worth of shares.
“Otedola will be able to assume complete control during the planned N360 billion private placement thanks to this.” However, some shareholders are arguing that a public offering or right issue should be used in place of a private placement for bank shares, according to an unnamed source who also identified as a stakeholder.
It was further claimed, nevertheless, that Otedola’s inclination for private placement is a ruse to seize power and manage the financial institution as his personal property.The dispute over who owns the single largest stake in FBN Holdings has been going on for the past few months.
Otedola and Barbican Capital, which is connected to the Oba Otudeko-owned Honeywell Group, are engaged in a struggle for FBH’s soul.
According to First Bank Holdings’ audited 2023 financial statements, Otedola held a 9.41% interest in the financial company, making him the single largest stakeholder. However, Otedola recently bought a significant number of more shares to expand his ownership. His precise shareholding is now unknown.
The largest single shareholder, however, is Barbican Capital, which is connected to the Oba Otudeko-owned Honeywell Group, holding a 15.01 percent interest, according to statistics from the Central Securities Clearing System, or CSCS, the generally recognized source for verifying share ownership.
As of May 23, 2024, Barbican Capital held 5,386,397,202 shares (5.38 billion), making it the single largest shareholder, according to records maintained by Meristem Registrars & Probate Services Ltd, the bank’s registrars.
Barbican Capital filed a lawsuit against FBN Holdings for misrepresenting its ownership stake in its audited financial statement.
Approximately 100 top employees were recently let go by First Bank as part of a significant organizational restructuring.
As part of its corporate restructuring and repositioning plan for 2025, reports had suggested that the bank’s senior executives were asked to resign after Olusegun Alebiosu was confirmed as FBN’s managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) in June of last year.
The departures were also alleged to be a part of Otedola’s deliberate attempt to fill a number of bank senior roles with fresh personnel.
What the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will do in response to this CAMA-driven proposal for an EGM to remove Otedola and halt the private placement of the bank shares is still unknown.