Further inquiries by our correspondent confirmed the situation, with courtrooms also becoming crowded with requests to swear affidavits.

A bank official at a first-generation bank informed The PUNCH that numerous customers and families had submitted requests to re-activate inactive accounts so as not to lose the money to the apex bank that intends to use them for investment purposes.

The official said, “Yes, we have seen customers coming to the bank to reactivate their accounts. Even relatives and next of kin to dead persons have submitted applications to withdraw amounts left in the account of their loved ones. It looks like the CBN guidelines made them remember those accounts.”

A businesswoman, Mrs Ugonne Akputa, said she paid some money into her six-year-old Access Bank account, which she had left for some time in order to reactivate it.

Akputa said she still needed to operate the account to save some money which she rarely withdrew.

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