Revealed: How Nigerian Banks Abet Fraudsters to Defraud Customers

A human rights organization, the Centre for Human Rights and Social Justice (CHRSJ) has raised an alarm on how Nigeria Commercial Banks’ officials were colliding with fraudsters to withdraw sums of money from bank’s account of their unsuspecting customers.

The group in a statement has thrown it’s weight behind the claims of the Senate President, Ahemed Lawan.

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Lawan had hinted that Commercial Banks in Nigeria were aiding fraud by allowing the fraudsters to open account with their Banks without necessary requisite.

The rights group also backed the Senate President’s call on the need to curb these fraudulent practices of banks and its officials during his recent investiture as Patron of Institute of Forensic, calling on anti-corruption agencies beam their searchlight on operations of commercial Banks in Nigeria.

It decried the unprecedented rate at which Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) and United Bank for African (UBA) were defrauding their customers through illegal deductions and charges.

This exposure by the rights group hinged on the alleged defrauding of a customer, Mr. Ibikunle Adebayo (08103966336) with First City Monument Bank (FCMB), Oko-Oba branch, Lagos State of Account Number: 6027724010,
wherein the sum of One Hundred and Sixty-Nine Thousand naira (N169, 000) were deducted from Ibikunle’s account without his knowledge on Wednesday 11th of November, 2020 but with knowledge of the FCMB Bank
officials.

Ibikunle’s money was transfered to Osifoh Peter with UBA Account Number 2052933837 and OPAY Account of Rufai Saidu with Account Number 9031811238, where the sums of One Hundred Thousand naira and Sixty-Nine Thousand naira were respectively withdrawn.

In a signed statement issued by the Executive Chairman of CHRSJ, Comrade Adeniyi Alimi Sulaiman, he maintained that the hands of Banks’ officials could not be removed from the ongoing fraudulent activities in the nation’s banking sector.

Sulaiman who stated that the human rights organization would soon forward a Petition Letter to the Economy and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate the ugly incident that occurred to poor Ibikunle Adebayo in the hand of FCMB in order to bring the perpetrators to justice, added that all efforts of Ibikunle who is a Welder, to retrieve his money back since Wednesday 11th of November, 2020 were jeopardize by the bank officials.

“To our dismay, upon report of the matter to the authority of
FCMB, Oko-Oba branch in Lagos State, they failed to trace the
fraudsters by bringing the money back to the rightful owner’s account which made us to suspect the involvement of bank officials in the fraud”, he said.

Sulaiman further issued a fourteen (14) days ultimatum to the FCMB Oko-Oba branch to return the money back to Ibikunle’s account, stating that failure to do so would result in a “#End of Banking Fraud” protest at the branch.