A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State and former Chairman of Irekari Local Council Development Area (LCDA), Steve Otaloro, has urged the management of FirstBank of Nigeria Plc to reopen its Idoani branch, saying the move would honour the legacy of the bank's first indigenous Managing Director, the late Chief Samuel Oyewole Asabia.

Otaloro made the appeal in a statement titled, "Asabia's Legacy Deserves Better: Why FirstBank Should Return to Idoani," where he argued that restoring banking operations to the community would not only revive economic activities but also preserve the memory of one of Nigeria's foremost banking icons.

He recalled that Chief Asabia, an indigene of Idoani in Ondo State, became the first indigenous Managing Director of FirstBank in 1975 and played a leading role in expanding banking services across the country under the Federal Government's Rural Banking Programme introduced during the military administration of former Head of State, General Olusegun Obasanjo.

According to Otaloro, Idoani was among the rural communities selected to benefit from the initiative, leading to the establishment of a FirstBank branch in the town during Asabia's tenure in the 1980s.

He noted that while there is no public evidence that the branch was established solely because Idoani was Asabia's hometown, its presence in the community remains a symbol of the bank's commitment to grassroots banking and financial inclusion.

Otaloro further stated that unlike many rural branches that operated from rented buildings, FirstBank invested significantly in Idoani by constructing a purpose-built banking hall and an official residence for the branch manager, demonstrating its long-term commitment to the community.

He explained that for decades, the branch served as the major financial hub for communities within Irekari LCDA, including Idogun, Imeri, Owani, Afo, Ikun, Oba and neighbouring settlements.

According to him, the branch also provided banking services to major institutions such as the Federal Government College, Idoani, the Nigerian Navy Secondary School, Imeri, as well as farmers, traders, artisans, transport operators, cooperative societies, public servants and other business owners across the area.

The APC chieftain lamented that following the April 8, 2019 armed robbery attack on the branch and the bank's subsequent branch rationalisation exercise, the Idoani branch was eventually shut down, leaving thousands of residents without access to conventional banking services.

He said the closure had compelled customers and business owners to travel long distances for banking transactions, while many residents now depend on Point-of-Sale operators for services previously rendered by the bank.

While acknowledging the security concerns that arose from the robbery incident, Otaloro maintained that the attack should not have marked the end of FirstBank's presence in the historic town.

"If FirstBank considers Samuel Asabia worthy of a Professorial Chair at one of Nigeria's foremost universities, it should also consider him worthy of maintaining a FirstBank presence in the very town where he was born, nurtured and ultimately laid to rest," he said.

Otaloro stressed that reopening the Idoani branch would not only honour a distinguished banker but also restore essential banking services to thousands of residents across Irekari LCDA and neighbouring communities, while reaffirming FirstBank's historic commitment to rural banking and financial inclusion.

He urged the bank's current management to revisit the decision taken by previous administrations, insisting that history would judge the present leadership not only by the decisions it inherited but also by its willingness to correct them.

"The present management may not have ordered the closure of the Idoani branch, but history will remember whether it had the vision to restore it.

"There is still time for FirstBank to return to the historic town of Idoani, where its first indigenous Managing Director, Chief Samuel Oyewole Asabia, began his remarkable journey and now rests. Reopening the branch would be a fitting tribute to the doyen of Nigerian banking and a practical demonstration that the bank remains committed to the ideals of rural banking and financial inclusion that he championed," Otaloro added.