Nigeria: A businessman goes to the bank about an unapproved withdrawal of N5.9 million
By Ahmad Hadizat Omayoza, Mamos Nigeria
Bala Ibrahim, a Keystone Bank account holder, has been having trouble meeting his financial obligations as a result of the alleged unauthorised withdrawal of N5.9 million from his corporate account by Tijani Saleh, an ex-manager of the bank’s Agege branch in Lagos State.
While speaking with our correspondent, Ibrahim stated that his attempts to obtain a refund from the bank were unsuccessful.
PUNCH Metro accumulated that Ibrahim opened a corporate record with the bank and subsidized the record with N20m.
Soon after financing the record, Ibrahim said he needed N5.9m to subsidize a portion of the ventures his organization was doing however presently couldn’t seem to be given a check to pull out cash from the corporate record.
Ibrahim claimed that he approached the manager of the bank for advice on the options available to him in order to withdraw the funds. He added that the manager requested the letter-head paper of his company in order to process the request.
The financial specialist, notwithstanding, made statements took another aspect when without his assent, the bank chief purportedly utilized the letter-went to make an unapproved withdrawal of N5.9m from his corporate record.
After finding that the cash had been removed when he mentioned his proclamation of record, Ibrahim said he raised the alert and the bank, subsequent to hearing about the supervisor’s activity, terminated him.
He, in any case, noticed that the bank still couldn’t seem to discount his cash notwithstanding realizing that the recent supervisor was answerable for the unapproved withdrawal.
Ibrahim stated, “I opened a corporate account with Keystone Bank for N20 million.” But I went to the bank manager when I needed money to help my company with some projects. He instructed me to send paper bearing my company’s letterhead, which I did.
“It was later on I understood he utilized the letter-made a beeline for pull out N5.9m from my record without my assent. He was fired after the bank discovered what he had done. From that point forward I began beseeching them to return my cash, however they rejected.
“I then reported the situation to the EFCC, but the case was turned against me and I was taken to court,” I wrote. Before I was given my discharge and acquitted, we worked on the case for more than five years.
Ibrahim claimed that the EFCC failed to summon the bank to court or demand payment from them after the case was resolved.
“They blamed me for pulling out the cash but guaranteed for an inversion. I wrote a lot of letters to get them to stop spending the money. They have denied. I composed the EFCC to charge them to court as they did to me yet they rejected. All I need is my cash back,” he said.
Responding, the representative for Cornerstone Bank Plc, Edward Ettu, in an email shipped off our journalist, said a scientific report showed that Ibrahim pulled out the cash through a counter check.
Ettu halfway expressed, “When the matter was accounted for to the police, they went further to research the N20m stopped into the record of the client. The client wouldn’t permit his fingerprints, among others, to be taken yet ultimately, a measurable report showed that he was the one that pulled out the cash through a counter check since his checkbook was not prepared.
“Neither did that judgment say that the bank legally debited his account nor did it say that he had money there. That didn’t come up in court by any stretch of the imagination. The same person who is asking for N5.9 million also filed a lawsuit against the FG, the EFCC, and the bank, claiming damages totaling more than N2 billion but not N5.9 million.
“At this time, the bank has not been sued for N5.9 million.” The forensic analysis of his writing and signature demonstrated that he was the one who withdrew the funds, as our record indicates. It isn’t a fact that the bank charged his record illicitly and no court request said as much.”
As of the time this report was filed, calls and text messages sent to Wilson Uwujaren, the spokesperson for the EFCC, for a comment on the matter had not received a response.
