By From our investigations, First City Monument Bank was not responsible for the death of one of its staff who committed suicide last week Thursday, Parrot News Online can authoritatively report.
Olisa Nwakoby, a commercial banker with Nigeria’s First City Group, took his own life before his pastor on Thursday, leaving his family, friends and colleagues writhing in grief.
The news of Mr. Nwakoby spread quickly, prompting rumours that he may have died as a result of undue pressure being mounted on him by his employer.
Nigerian social media and blogosphere had been awash with news purporting to have uncovered how Mr. Nwakoby allegedly shot himself over a N350 million in delinquent loan he approved on behalf of the bank.
The reports alleged that FCMB started putting pressure on Mr. Nwakoby to find a way of recovering the loans or face legal consequences.
“With pressure mounting on all sides and apprehension over sullying his family name, the banker and father of a 10-year-old daughter shot himself,” one of the reports said.
But findings by this newspaper revealed that Mr. Nwakoby did not approve loans that had become delinquent, neither was he under any pressure from his superiors to recover any money for the bank.
The source, who spoke with Parrot News Online, said Mr. Nwakoby narrated he had amassed huge debt from personal commitments and was at the verge of “losing everything.”
“He was very worried when he walked up to me to narrate his debt burden,” the source said.
“I was shocked to hear that he had killed himself despite all the assurances I gave him just a night before,” the source said. “This is the most heartbreaking moment of my life.”
Parrot News Online’s investigation showed that Mr. Nwakoby suffered a massive depression based on this sequence of events prompting him to approach his spiritual adviser for help.
Mr. Nwakoby visited the pastor to whom he narrated his ordeal. Shortly afterward a loud “bang!” was heard. That was not before Mr. Nwakoby had informed his host to take care of his family on his behalf.
He died instantly.
The pastor declined comments for this story, but sources close to him confirmed that Mr. Nwakoby came see the pastor and they didn’t suspect that anything was amiss.
“He had been a frequent visitor to this premises,” the source said. “So there’s no way we could have suddenly detected that he was having issues this time around that he visited.”
Family sources who spoke with Parrot News Online described Mr. Nwakoby as a “loving, unassuming and hardworking man” who laboured to “ensure a good life for himself, his family as well as his neighbours.”
“There’s hardly anything he has that he can’t give,” a source said. “I have always heard that good people die early, this is perhaps the best corollary of that parlance. It is sad.”
Mr. Nwakoby, until his death, was the head of operations at the Lekki Branch of First City Monument Bank which he joined more than a decade ago.
He left behind his wife and 10-year old daughter.
