…Shuns litigation notice

By Our Correspondent

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Fraudulent withdrawal on the savings account of a First Bank of Nigeria Plc customer, Mr. Ugwu Chukwuma, is threatening to rubbish the image of the first generation bank as the customer has moved to institute a legal action against the bank after series of moves to resolve the matter failed to yield result.

The withdrawal made in several tranches amounting to N474, 300 from old (account number 243 301 007 0966) may soon be an issue for litigation if Chukwuma’s lawyers from the legal chambers of Ikechukwu Onodi & Co are to be taken any seriously.

In a letter dated November 19, 2009 by the principal partner of the chamber and made available to InvestAdvocate, which was addressed to the bank, Ikechukwu Onodi, narrated how suspected fraudsters emptied the customer’s account using the automated teller machine (ATM).

According to the letter, the savings account was opened early 2009 at the Adeyemo Alakija Street, Victoria Island branch and by October that same year, it had been emptied within two days in six tranches.

Chukwuma said in 2009, (three) 3 weeks to his wedding, he has not gone to his account to withdraw for about one week; until the day this was discovered.

“As I was making preparations for my wedding, I have not gone to my account for about a week, or thereabout, so when I went to withdraw with my ATM Card, I put it the first time, the machine rejected it, I did that the second time, the machine also rejected it saying wrong PIN. I put it the third time, it got stucked and didn’t come out,” he said.

Chukwuma affirmed he went to do the withdrawal at Zenith Bank Plc Agege Motor Road, “when I went to request they help me retrieve the ATM card, they said they will not give it to me that I should go. So, I went home to pick my withdrawal booklet and rushed to First Bank Dopemu branch to make withdrawal, I needed cash on that day, I wanted to withdraw about N60,000 out of the balance of N474,300, then the cashier told me that I don’t have money in the account that I have a balance of about N600.

I said what do you mean, I have close to N474, 300 she showed me the system that between Friday and Sunday, the sum of N474, 300 has been withdrawn with my ATM card and I was dumbfounded,” he said.

A withdrawal slip made available to InvestAdvocate shows that Ugwu has filled the slip to withdraw N60,000 on October 23, 2009, but the balance available on the account was N694.76  

Close examination of Chukwuma’s account statement made available to InvestAdvocate showed that a total sum of N210, 000 was withdrawn on October 19, 2009 from the account in six different tranches using ATM card. The following day, the credit balance of N264,694 was further reduced to only N36,794.76.

“Upon discovery of this fraud, our client immediately reported it to the NIJ House, Adeyemo Alakija Street, Victoria Island Branch Manager. But till date nothing concrete, not even placating has come out of that report”, the lawyers wrote about First Bank.

Some intriguing questions are begging for answers in the whole scenario. What happened to the First Bank’s ATM daily withdrawal limit at a time when emphasis was placed on a policy that there must be no withdrawal exceeding N100, 000 per day?

How was it possible that in just two days, massive withdrawal was effected on the account without hindrance? And worse still, there was no alert of any form to inform the account holder about the transactions.

As explained by the solicitors, it was even more intriguing that at the point of opening the account, the account holder requested for an alert system either by means of an e-mail or short message service (sms) but was told it was not available.

InvestAdvocate contacted Babatunde Lasaki, Head, Media and External Relations, Marketing and Corporate Communications of First Bank to clarify the issue, as at the time of filing in this report, no official response to us from the bank on the matter.

However, the bank has neither been able to refund the customer his money nor offer satisfactory explanation to him. Chukwuma, who is suspecting in-house conspiracy on the fraudulent act said: “All I want is for the bank to find out who stole my money and refund me with interest that has accumulated over the years. Since 2009, I have been going there only to be referred from one office to another.”

He alluded to unconfirmed theory that banks do not investigate any IT related fraud because it usually involves many other people that may be regarded as sacred cows.

An investigation to the bank reveals that the new NUBAN account number to Chukwuma’s account is 303 067 4966.