IBADAN, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA) – A Lagos State resident, Chiamaka Jennifer Agim, has raised the alarm after about N4 million strangely disappeared from her Zenith Bank account.
In a video uploaded on her Twitter page on Tuesday, Agim, who is a former Zenith Bank employee, shared her ordeal in tears.
The video has caused an uproar on Twitter, with many sharing their own ordeal with their respective banks while others called out Zenith Bank management over the fraudulent act.
A tweep, @kelvinekerete said the bank must refund the money.
“4 million naira…. I don’t even want to hear, you must refund that money. Refund the money first before doing your investigations.”
Activist Rinu Oduala asked if it was allowed to withdraw 3.7 million naira at once.
“3.7 million naira at once. Is that even allowed? They are thieves and must refund your money,” she said.
@tomsik_k recounted her own ordeal with UBA.
She said: “@UBAGroup did this to me, they authorized 530k transaction which I did not have in my account and my account is on -495k. Cos I had 35k there which they removed. I just stopped using the bank. How will you authorize a transaction higher than my available balance.”
The bank replied via their official Twitter handle that a response had been provided via DM.
@tomisik_k slammed them for debiting her of the amount of money she doesn’t have in her bank account.
“Response that I should pay for money I didn’t borrow. Debited me of money I don’t have in my account and later put my account on negative. Go and tell Tony Elumelu that. Useless bank !!”
Another tweep, @quadrommed shared a similar experience with Zenith bank.
He wrote: “That’s how they do!!! Got my first of 17k to wema bank, then the 105k to Zenith bank.
“These fraudulent banks have still not been able to explain how my money got transferred when even I cannot do any transaction on my account!💔💔💔”
In another tweet, he continued: “Literally went to bank to get my acct restricted after the first 17k debit. I was the last pson to leave the bank trying around 5:15pm trying to get the rest of my money out and I wasn’t allowed claiming it’s restricted.
“Got the 105k debit in less than hour after leaving bank.”
Investigative journalist who runs FIJ, Fisayo Soyombo, asked the aggrieved lady to send him her contact and someone from @fijnigeria would contact her.
When contacted by the Foundation of Investigative Journalism (FIJ), Agim revealed what happened in detail.
According to Agim, she was relaxing in her apartment on the evening of 9 January, 2023, when she received three alerts for debits which added up to N4.039 million.
The Lagos resident also said she opened the bank account that was cleared of all her savings while she was working at Zenith Bank.
“When I received the first alert around 8.25, I actually thought it was a WhatsApp message. I checked it and was shocked to see that it was an alert of N3.715 million,” she said.
“I was confused because I did not authorise any transaction, so I logged in to my bank app to check what was happening. That was when I got another debit alert of N222,000 and then I got the third one of N102,000.
“Agim told FIJ that Zenith Bank officials did not take her complaint seriously when she reported the incident at two branches of the bank in the Yaba area of the state on Tuesday.
She said was asked to write a letter of complaint, which she did and submitted at each Zenith Bank branch.
“I first went to the branch at Herbert Macaulay, and I told the customer care representative that I needed to speak with the bank management. That was when a woman came out of her office and told me to accompany her back to the office,” she told FIJ.
“I don’t know if she is the branch manager, but I am sure she holds a top position. She said I should thank God that I am alive and that when there is life, there is hope.”
The ex-Zenith Bank staff member went to another branch in Alagomeji, Yaba, as she was not satisfied with the response from the first branch.
Although she said the manager at the second branch was nonchalant in his response at first, Agim noted that she still got the desired attention compared with the first branch she visited.
“After I had written a letter as instructed by the manager, he said they were going to look into it. He also said he would see what they could do before Friday,” she told FIJ.