My name is Deborah Coker, and I am an account holder with United Bank for Africa (UBA).
On Wednesday, 30th November, 2022, I woke up about 11:09pm to use the convenience, having slept quite early before 7pm. After using the convenience, I decided to check time on my phone with a view to do my night prayers, lo and behold, as I unlocked my phone, the first thing I saw was a debit alert from my salary account which is domiciled with the UBA.
I was curious and wondered what debit alert it could be, so I opened the message, and to my utmost surprised, it was a debit alert of N148,200 (one hundred and forty eight thousand two hundred naira).
Immediately my heart skipped because I was expecting alert of my November salary earlier that day, which I didn’t get before I went to bed before 7pm. So I quickly scrolled down to see the message at the top, and to my surprise my salary had actually been paid, and UBA didn’t send me the alert until few minutes after 8pm when I was already sleeping, and it was that same my salary that the UBA fraudulently, without my authorization, debited and moved to an eNaira account.
Now I don’t know anything about eNAIRA. I don’t have eNaira account, nor even the wallet, so I had to go to the internet to find out information about eNAIRA. After that, with the shock of the whole thing, I couldn’t sleep again.
So on Thursday being December 1st, I rushed down to the UBA branch on Aminu Kano Crescent here in Abuja, where I opened the account some years back, and made complaint. The Manager, one Mr Fidel Okwesa, was very helpful and promised that the bank would deploy all it’s machinery to track both the account and the fraudster. I told him that, whoever did it was either an insider or been aided and working in collaboration with an insider because, my details was supposed to be protected by the bank.
Well, I left the bank that day after spending seven hours there. I returned to the bank on Friday, to find out what progress has been made, and the manager told me that the e-fraud unit had been able to track the name of the eNAIRA account holder and where he is domiciled. He sent the details to me and asked if I know the person, and I told him, I have never heard of the name before.
He still gave assurance that they would do everything to ensure that I get my money back. However, he added that from on the 5th of December he would be going on vacation for two weeks.
He then took me to his assistant, one Mrs Mandu Okon, and introduced me to her and reminded her about the issue and that in his absence I would be meeting with her on progress made, to which the Mrs Okon said ok.
By that same Friday evening, the Manager (Okwesa) called me again to inform me that they have been able to trace the bank and account number where whoever perpetrated the fraud moved my money to, and that I should get a court order to compel the UBA to refund the money back to my account.
On Monday, December 5th, I got my lawyer to get in touch with the acting Manager, Mrs Mandu Okon, to get further information with a view to know what to write down and take before the court to secure the court order. She gave the details of the fraudster which were:
Name – Suleman Isah
Address – Nugbasoro Street, Benin City
Bank – UBA
Account Number – 2289230628
On Wednesday, December 7th, we secured the court order and immediately took it to the UBA. On getting there to submit the court order to Mrs Okon, she referred the my lawyer to another person, one Mr Alfred, whom she claimed would handle it.
Now I’m aware that the bank needed to verify the court order before they can act on it. This they have done, but till today, they have refused to honour the court order to refund my money. Instead coming up with one lame lies and excuse or the other.
A situation I believe has to do with the fact that one of them had perpetrated the fraud, and they know the person and are shielding the person.
