ZOMBIE WORKERS: HOW DOZIE LED DIAMOND BANK RUNS A SLAVE COLONY MASQUERADING AS FINANCIAL INSTITUTION

Mirabel White

Diamond as the name implies is a gemstone with no blemish but the financial institution Diamond Bank which operates as a top rated bank in Nigeria is a direct opposite as it has failed severally to live up to its name and uphold their already established standard but has rather brought dirt on its corporate image by engaging in fraudulent and unhealthy work practices. This online news medium can authoritatively reports that Diamond bank whose core value include integrity has now taken to the path of dishonesty to deprive and deny 373 members of staff their severance entitlement after the callous bank unjustly retrenched them since 2016.

According to our source, the management of Diamond Bank on 27th of May 2016 at about 5:30am sent an electronic mail to 373 of their member staff to notify them of termination of their appointment, without stating any objective reason. Most of the workers who didn’t receive the termination mail before leaving home to work were caught off guard as they couldn’t access their various work stations and were only able to find out about the termination of their appointment after renting their friend’s phone.

In a bizarre twist of events the callous bank not minding their action which rendered many homeless, devastated and hopeless without any succor turned around to claim to the House Committee on public complaints during a public hearing on the matter that the 373 staff purportedly resigned voluntarily on a single day.

Investigations by SecretReporters revealed that the nefarious bank under the management of Mr. Uzoma Dozie in a bid to chisel the affected staff after discovering their mistake of sending a dated job termination email of 27th May 2016 called some of the laid off staff after about a week through their managers to report to the bank where they were coaxed to sign a resignation letter with the assurance that they would be paid their severance entitlement. Unknown to the staff  that this was just Diamond Bank’s way of getting for themselves false evidence to present to the House Committee so as to vindicate their inhumane act, these clueless victims in oblivion signed the letter back-dated to the 27th of May 2016.

This treacherous act was carried out by Diamond bank over two years ago, and till date no justice or severance entitlement has been received by the 373 sacked workers whom the bank claimed retired voluntarily on a single day. Despite several court sittings, Nigeria’s Apex Bank CBN and Diamond Bank who are codefendants in the case have repeatedly refused to appear in court when summoned thus frustrating court proceedings.  To add salt to injury the bank inhumanely debited the affected staff of the rent allowance and other allowances they paid upfront in January, with most of the poor victim’s accounts on debit with accruing interest.

Further Investigations by SecretReporters also revealed that Diamond Bank is infamous for her brash working conditions, subjecting staff to little or no time for themselves or their families. Most of their policies lead to perpetual exhaustion resulting into ill-health or death as witnessed in most cases, severed homes to mention just a few. One of these policies our reporter learnt involves demanding the front tellers to stand while on duty from 8am till 4pm, most times without lunch.  They also request their workers to report on weekends to work, with no exception to pregnant women and nursing mothers who are member staff as they are also subjected to similar working conditions as the rest without any consideration.

A source who currently works with the bank speaking on the condition of anonymity disclosed to SecretReporters that most of the workers are constantly denied request for transfers. Even those who have infants and wish to be brought closer to their families are not considered rather the bank in turn transfer them to farther locations where they are overworked with little or no compensation.

Another unfortunate incident narrated by a reliable source was that of a staff who had a sick child but was denied leave of absence to duly attend to the needs of the child, in due course the child passed away, and the heartless management of the bank deemed fit that the best way to console a grieving mother is to sack her. There are also several incidents of people passing out while on duty, consumption of medications discreetly especially BP drugs just to keep up with the work pressure.

Furthermore SecretReporters learnt that Diamond Bank purportedly has the highest charges for services amongst all banks in the country, yet the villainous bank spearheaded by Mr. Uzoma Dozie has refused to pay their victimized staff, but instead unjustly deprive and withhold their benefits thus causing them to live in untold hardship with many giving up the ghost after no justice was served.