What would have been a nasty altercation was prevented by the timely intervention of soldiers nearby the Maska Road, off Ali Akilu Road branch of the First City Monument Bank (FCMB) in Kaduna on Wednesday.
A source at the scene explained that trouble began when the FCMB staff abandoned customers who were on queue to attend to others who were described as “rich and influential” members of the society who jumped the queues.
The rancour started when the matter came to the notice of the Bank Manager, who instead of appealing to the customers, was supporting the act perceived to be favouritism.
Emotions ran high and there were shouts as the altercation heated up.
The eyewitness said: “We were on the queue for close to two hours, frustrated and anxiously waiting to be attended to but the cashiers were showing favouritism by attending to those who just stepped in, not minding those of us on the queue.
“We attempted to make the cashiers stop the act but they refused. What caused the uproar was that the branch manager who should have called them to order was instead, seen supporting them,” he informed.
He went on to say that at that point, the angry customers were provoked to anger and were almost disrupting activities at the bank.
“What made things worse was when the person that identified himself as the branch manager told us that if we like we should not deposit money at the bank again.”
He said the soldiers at first wanted to use force on the customers to maintain peace but when they heard the story of what actually happened, they relaxed, choosing to persuaded the customers to let peace prevail, instead of using force.
