November 29,2022

Damilola Akinnagbe, a 72-year-old Lagos-based retired chartered accountant, has narrated how N741,065 disappeared from his United Bank of Africa (UBA) account

Akinnagbe told FIJ that since he opened the account in 2006, he had only received one credit and one debit alerts.

“I opened my UBA account in 2006 when I was still working in the US. I have another account with First Bank, which I use for my transactions. But this UBA, I didn’t use it. I actually forgot everything about it. I opened the UBA account in order to keep money. I didn’t want to spend urgently. I didn’t receive any credit alert on the money deposit I made on October 13, this year. I went to the bank the following day and filled out a form that I wanted to be receiving alerts on my email. Surprisingly, I didn’t receive any alerts until on November 11 when I received a debit alert that N200,000 had been transferred to one Olaitan Osisanya. I was scared. I didn’t even know who to call,” Akinnagbe said

It was at the bank that I got to know on November 14, after I had made several attempts to block my account, that N150,000 had left my account to this same Olaitan Osisanya. Then I requested that my account statement be printed for me. To my greatest shock, I discovered that about N750,000 had disappeared from the account. Between October 14 and November 11 that I submitted the form, there were several deductions from my account, and I didn’t get any alert from the bank.

“The only alerts I ever got from the bank was the N200,000 debit alert on November 11 and the credit alert of N300,000 on November 14. UBA claimed I used the mobile banking app, and that I responded to an OTP sent to me. I don’t do internet banking on my phone. I had never used an ATM card until on November 14 when I went to the bank to lodge a complaint about the missing money.

“Personally, with the frequent news I have been reading on money disappearance at UBA, it is either some crooked UBA staff are stealing people’s money or they are working with outsiders to hack customers’ accounts. Definitely and absolutely, something is not right with their staff. My account was there for years and nothing happened to it until the moment I made a deposit on October 13.”

Osisanya, who had consulted with the Onyekachi Oyeni & Partners (Barristers and Solicitors), said, “If UBA doesn’t resolve it, I will have to go to court, the EFCC, or the CBN. I can’t just overlook it and say God should take vengeance.”

Meanwhile, FIJ spoke with a UBA customer fulfilment centre (CFC) representative on the phone, who said “before anything would be done on this account, I would need to engage Mr Akinnagbe”.

“If the owner of the account gave you the permission to talk to us, kindly get a written instruction from the person and visit our business office for that, please.”