An account holder with the First City Monument Bank (FCMB), Mr. Saka Adebayo Jimoh, is literally crying from the rooftop on how a sum of the N300,000 was fraudulently transferred from his account to a WEMA bank account without his consent.
On account of this, he has asked FCMB to return his money. Mr. Jimoh narrated his ordeal to NATIONAL WAVES on Saturday. He said his money was stolen from his account.
He said ” I changed my phone to a new one and wanted to transfer the sum of N400,000 to someone and it was not going through”
“I called FCMB Customer Service Centre and a lady attended to me by giving me my username which was missing from the new phone. I was able to open my App back but couldn’t transfer. I called back after a few minutes later, and a young man answered me requesting what I wanted. I told him I wanted to transfer #400,000 and it’s not going through. He told me that I can only transfer #50,000 unless I come to the bank to register my new phone so as to return my transfer limit to #5m. In the alternative, he will help me transfer the #400,000 by sending me a code”
“He sent the code immediately but I refused to act on the code because I suspected him as a fraudster. I went into my room to change to enable me to visit the bank branch at Adura, Agbado, On my way, I got an alert for #200,000 debiting my account. Again before I could get to the bank, I got another #100,000 debiting me”
“I got inside the bank and raised alarm. My App was blocked and I was asked to write to the bank about all that happened which I did”.
“The next day, I went to Agege branch to complain and the letter was submitted again. It was at Agege branch that I was told that the money was transferred to WEMA Bank at Sabo branch, Lagos State”.
“I started sending emails to FCMB and I was asked to wait for 30 days and that action was going on to repatriate my money back from WEMA bank”
“When I couldn’t get satisfactory results, I decided to send emails to the CBN fraud desk. To date, no results from them”
When asked if he gave out any information regarding his account, he said he didn’t give out his PIN or card number to anyone.
Mr. Jimoh said his money was stolen with the assistance of the FCMB staff he spoke to and wants the bank to retrieve his money from WEMA Bank”
He said “I did not give out information regarding my account. I sent correspondences to CBN and FCMB fraud desks respectively with Bank alert statements on how the money was moved. Up till now, no actions were taken by the banks”
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“This fraud was perpetrated by one of FCMB staff, the money was transferred to a WEMA Bank account. “The culprit has BVN, NIN, and other relevant documents with which he opened the bank account with WEMA bank. I don’t know why the culprit could not be traced by FCMB” Mr. Jimoh submitted.
When NATIONAL WAVES contacted the corporate communications department of FCMB for its reaction, a staff of the department, Rafiu Mohammed, requested the bank details of the account holder to enable him forward the same to the department that will investigate the fraudulent transaction.
In recent times, FCMB has become a beehive of fraudulent activities, recently, Justice A. T. Mohammed of the Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, convicted and sentenced Emeka Okafor, for fraud committed while he was an employee of the bank to one-year imprisonment, for forgery and uttering of documents.
He was jailed, after pleading guilty to two -count charges, bordering on forgery and uttering of documents, when arraigned by the Port Harcourt Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
One of the count charges reads: “That you Emeka Okafor sometime in December 2007 at Port Harcourt, Rivers State, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court while you were a staff of First City Monument Bank, with intent to defraud, did utter a forged document to wit: Re: N2,500,000.00 Investment in Bankers Acceptance dated 5/12/2007 to Donatus Ogbonna with the intent that, it may be acted upon as genuine which you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence in line with Section 1 (2) (c) of the Miscellaneous Offences Act M17 of the Revised Edition (Laws of the Federation of Nigeria) Act, 2007 and punishable under Section 1 (2) of the same Act.”
He pleaded guilty to the two-count charges when they were read to him.
In view of his pleas, prosecution counsel, E. Abbiyesuku prayed to the court to convict and sentence the defendant as charged.
However, counsel to the defendant, Echozona Etiaba, SAN, prayed the court to temper justice with mercy stressing that, Okafor is a first- time offender with no previous criminal records.
Justice Mohammed convicted and sentenced the defendant to one year imprisonment, without any option of fine. The judge also ordered the convict, in agreement with the First City Monument Bank, FCMB, to restitute to the victim the sum of Four Million, Eight Hundred and Sixty-Eight Thousand, Six Hundred and Twenty Five Naira (4,868,625.00).
Okafor’s journey to the Correctional service started, when a petitioner raised a case of forgery and uttering of documents against him. He committed the crimes while functioning as a Relationship Officer of the petitioner at First City Monument Bank, FCMB.
The convict diverted money meant for a fixed deposit investment by the victim and when the victim visited the bank to access his investment, he was told the convict no longer worked with the bank and that his investment did not pass through the bank channels and all the documents signed did not emanate from the bank.
