A Nigerian man, Mohammed Umoru has cried out after returning from Dubai to find out that his years of labour had gone for nothing.
Umoru had opened an account in one of the branches of a new generation bank in Lagos before travelling to Dubai.
According to him, he was still studying Engineering at the University of Lagos before he travelled to Dubai where he worked as a contract construction worker in the UAE.
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Umoru said he faced hardship before his eventual deportation.
He said:
“I was a student at Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto, then continued at the University of Lagos. I studied Engineering before travelling out in 2016 to Dubai, then returned in 2022.
“I finished my contract there before being repatriated. I had come before 2022. The company had issues then I left the company for another one where I worked for another two years. While working, I sought another visa, but it was not granted, and the government had to bring us back home.”
He stated that those without employment could not open a bank account, saying that the company will shoulder that responsibility and that if they leave, the account would be shut down by the same company.
He said the person using the account had bought airtime worth N50,000 via his lost number. He said he messaged the bank to shut down the account and asked if he could use his foreign number. Umoru stated that he could not conclude the process of obtaining a new phone number because of his status in Dubai.
He did not have an employment visa. Upon visiting Nigeria, he asked the bank to restrict the account and deactivate the phone number.
Umoru said:
“When I returned to Nigeria, I went to the bank and asked them to open the restriction placed on the account.
I explained to them that the number had been stolen and should deactivate the number from my account. I didn’t put my foreign number and since I was not in Nigeria I didn’t have a Nigerian number to replace the number. I wrote a letter to them that all transactions should be through my email.”
When he returned to Dubai, he lodged an additional 5,000 Dirham, and almost immediately, the person began another transaction on the account. This time, he got back to the bank through a video call with the bank’s representatives to authenticate his identity.
He was told that he had been declared dead and that someone claiming to be his next of kin had a death certificate to empty the account containing N1.6 million.
The man, who was said to be one of the recently repatriated Nigerians from Dubai, added he only did not return to an empty bank account, but also a pregnant wife.
He said:
“My next of kin to the account was my younger brother. My brother should have the right to the account if I were dead.
“I obtained my statement of account. I was not married when I opened this account, so my next of kin was not my wife. I found out that the person obtained my death certificate from a court in Jigawa State.”
When contacted, the bank representative said they were working on the issue but said they could not hassle him to expedite action on the case.
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