LAGOS—Barely
two weeks after embarking on an indefinite hunger strike to protest non-payment
of his terminal benefit, Mr. Olubiyi Odunaro, a 53-year-old former
employee of Hallmark Bank Plc., yesterday, suspended his hunger strike. Odunaro, had commenced the indefinite
hunger strike on November 12 this year in protest against the non-payment of
his terminal benefit as well as that of over 14,000 of his colleagues who were
also affected.
Odunaro suspended the hunger strike
after several minutes of appeals from the state Attorney-General and
Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Ade Ipaye, who was represented by his Senior
Special Assistant on Justice and Law Reform, Mr. Lanre Akinsola and the
President, Association of ex-staff of Non-Consolidated Banks, Mr. Magnus Maduka
at a garden on Mobolaji Bank-Anthony Way, a place he had turned abode since
commencement of the strike.
Hallmark Bank was one of the banks
that failed to meet the Central Bank of Nigeria’s, CBN, recapitalisation
requirement in 2005 and had to fold up, laying off its staff in the process.
According
to Odunaro, “On this strike, I am not acting alone. It is a struggle for me and
others who are affected. Since I have received the assurance from my
association that I should suspend it; and that the state governor, is now aware
of the issue, I will do so today.”
The Ex-Banker who was taken to the
General Hospital, with the Lagos State Ambulance Service, LASAMBUS, added, “I
am suspending it and I would give the state government the benefit of the
doubt. I know the state government has been up and doing on various issues
concerning its residents”
Ipaye said: “This is
a very pathetic situation and immediately the Governor, Babatunde Fashola, read
about it in the media, he mandated the office of the Attorney-General and
Commissioner for Justice
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