The Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria (ISAN) has  described as obnoxious and illegal the revocation of three operating commercial banks by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Reports say that ISAN urged President Goodluck Jonathan to declare an emergency in the nation’s banking industry to avert what they termed “global concerns on Nigeria’s economic and financial status.”

The association said in a statement that the revocation of the operating licences of three commercial banks, namely Afribank Plc, Bank PHB Plc and Spring Bank Plc, remained a calculated subversion of the nation’s economy and the great people of  Nigeria.

“Importantly and as concerned shareholders, ISAN strongly feels that the revocation of banking  licences remains an open gridlock that in the medium term erodes the transformation agenda of the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.

“That the Central Bank of Nigeria Re: Resolution of  Recapitalisation through Bridge Banks remains an attestation of failure or inept leadership by the current management of the apex bank toward finding a permanent answer to the nation’s induced banking problems,” ISAN said.

According to ISAN, the revocation of the operating licences of the banks will deepen the crisis of confidence in the nation’s domestic financial sector, particularly the banking and the capital market.

The statement signed by ISAN National Coordinator, Sir Sunny Nwosu, also stated that “CBN’s revocation approach to the nation’s self-induced banking distress would further improvise the citizens and Nigerians ability to create wealth through long term savings window of the capital market.”

They argued that the revocation of the operating licences of three commercial banks was an illegal policy that had clearly showcased Nigeria as an unfriendly polity for sustainable business engaged in a class war championed by few individuals in the corridors of power at the CBN.

The Nwosu-led group submitted that the hurried revocation of the licences remained a calculated plot to forcefully compel the new Minister of Finance to be part of an alleged agenda in the banking industry.

Nwosu said that the revocation of the operating licences was an affront on the nation’s Judiciary, as there were substantive cases over the banks in question in competent law courts.

The association also said that it had been vindicated in its earlier posture that the Assets Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) was floated to re-nationalise commercial and quoted banks.

“By this action, the CBN has actualised the subsisting threat to revoke the operating  licences of banks whose shareholders challenged in law courts the apex bank’s recapitalisation method,” ISAN said.