Nojeem Ogundele, a shop assistant, who lost N350,000 to a fraudster at Wema Bank, Aiyetoro branch, Ogun State, has accused the bank of nonchalance in helping him to retrieve the money.
Punch learnt that the incident happened around 1pm on October 12 when Obi Emmanuel, Ogundele’s boss, sent him to deposit the money into a business account.
On getting to the bank, Ogundele joined a queue for depositors. However, he was instructed to fill out three tellers by a man who came out of the bulk room, after which the man collected the money from him and went back to the bulk room.
The victim later discovered that the man who collected his money was a fraudster.
He said, “Last week, my boss sent me to deposit N350,000 at the Aiyetoro branch of Wema Bank and when I got there, customers were many outside the bank.
“A man suddenly came out of the bank and told the security men that they should let those of us who wanted to deposit huge sums of money into the bank.
After I entered, the same man came to me and asked how much I wanted to deposit and when I told him, thinking he was a bank official, he gave me three tellers and told me to fill in the details.
“I was waiting for the signed copies from the bulk room and when it was taking too long, I raised the alarm.”
It was learnt that the bank’s closed circuit television camera captured the suspect’s face, but the bank claimed he wasn’t their staff.
Nojeem’s boss, Emmanuel Obi reported the case at the Aiyetoro Police Station. He told punch correspondent that the bank and the police were foot-draggings on the matter.
Emmanuel said, “Since we reported the case to the police, both the bank and the police have not done much to ensure I get my money. I am just a small businessman and that money means a lot to me.
“We later learnt that this kind of a thing has been happening recently in that bank.”
Sharafadeen Awayeti, the bank’s branch manager, confirmed the incident, but he claimed Ogundele might have been hypnotised.
He said, “First, the man in question wore native attire and aside from Fridays, we don’t wear native clothes to work.
“Also, this is not the boy’s first time of depositing money for his boss in our bank, so we feel that he may have been hypnotised by the criminal who made away with the money.
“We gave all necessary assistance to the police when they came here to investigate and since the investigation is ongoing on the matter, let’s wait for them to conclude their work”.
See Also: Twitter User Raises Alarm Over Fake Account Impersonating GT Bank
Dolapo Olayemi, a financial expert, said banks must ensure that their workers could be easily identified by customers, as such frauds had become rampant inside banking halls.
Also, the state police spokesperson, SP Abimbola Oyeyemi, said he would get back to punch correspondent on the incident.
Source: Punch
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