BY Tony Edike

ENUGU-Commercial banks in Enugu State, Monday, locked out customers and other members of the public who trooped to the banks for transaction as they observed the ongoing strike over the N18,000 minimum wage.

Some residents who visited the banks for normal transaction as early as 7.30 am were disappointed as the gates were shut.

The banks,  in compliance with a directive from National President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to financial institutions and other public institutions to remain closed in sympathy with civil servants in Enugu state who are on indefinite strike action to press home their demands for the full implementation of the new minimum wage by the state government, shut their doors against their customers.

At one of the banks along Ogui Road, near the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium, there was a bold warning “Workers on Strike, Keep off or You Regret your Life.”

In some of the banks, customers were denied access to the ATM machines as security men prevented them from gaining entry to the bank’s premises.

Where the banks’ ATM are accessible, without passing through the gates, there was no cash in the machines as desperate customers who engaged in panic withdrawals over the weekend had exhausted the cash fed into the machines.

One of the customers, Amaechi Okonkwo, said the closure of banks caught them unawares as many of the customers did not have an idea that banks would join the civil servants strike.

Okonkwo said many customers thought after they were locked out last Friday, the banks would have a change of heart or the labour and government would reach an agreement, hence the decision of many customers to come very early to beat the normal Monday morning crowd in the banks.

Vanguard observed that gates of government-owned hospitals were also shut against members of the public as patients in the state  patronized private clinics and alternative medicines.