The Chairperson of the Senate Committee on banking, insurance and other financial institutions Senator Nkechi Nwogu has commended Chrome Group for its forthrightness and sincerity in the way and manner it has cooperated with the Senate Committee, in resolving Chrome Group’s alleged indebtedness to the defunct Afex Bank plc.
Speaking at the closed-door Senate Committee on banking, insurance and other financial institutions hearing held at room 322, new Senate building, on Tuesday July 21, 2009, which was convened to ‘look at issues, outstandings, and areas of difference’, the Senate Committee chairperson, observed that the cardinal role of its committee was arbitration.
In her opening remarks Senator Nwogu traced the genesis of the alleged indebtedness, while urging the parties not to adopt a hard-line posture, so that the matter could be resolved without further delay in the interest of the depositors of the defunct Afex Bank plc., now acquired by UBA plc, under the ‘cherry picking’ policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria. Urging the NDIC, represented by Barrister Nyako to have a rethink and meet with Chrome Group to achieve a successful resolution, she observed that ‘a lot of progress had been made with Chrome Group positively since the intervention of the Senate committee’.
After deliberating for several hours without an amicable settlement in site, as a result of inconsistencies in the alleged total indebtedness by Chrome, with both sides claiming different figures, the Senate Committee resolved that NDIC and Chrome Group should meet and conclude negotiations, with a view to achieving a resolution, and get back to the Senate Committee within one month.
Members of the Senate Committee on banking, insurance and other financial institutions present at the meeting included Senators Nkechi Nwogu (chairperson), Chief Kola Bajomo, FCA, Chief Patricia Akwashiki and Alhaji Idris Umar. Chrome Group was represented by a team of seven persons lead by the Group’s COO, Mr. Ike Okpala.