Personal debt allegedly drove FCMB branch manager to commit suicide

There are new reports that the First City Monument Bank manager who shot himself in the head last week and shocked the whole nation with his act did it because he had amassed a huge debt from personal commitments and was at the verge of “losing everything.”

Olisa Nwakoby, a commercial banker with Nigeria's First City Group, took his own life before his pastor, leaving his family, friends and colleagues writhing in grief.

The news spread quickly, prompting reports that he may have died as a result of undue pressure being mounted on him by his employer, over a N350 million 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 soiling his family name, the banker and father of a 10-year-old daughter shot himself,” one of the reports said.

According to a new report on ParrotNigeria, 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.

A source, who spoke with them reportedly 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.”

Mr. Nwakoby reportedly suffered a massive depression based on this sequence of events prompting him to approach his spiritual adviser for help.

He 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 to 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 the news outlet 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 with 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.