A customer of Ecobank, Peter Ezeike, has alleged that the bank was involved in the theft of N3,755,000 from his savings account while he was living in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) between 2018 and 2019.
Ezeike, who returned to Nigeria in 2021, discovered the huge financial loss when he checked his account balance and found several unauthorized transactions that took place in his absence.
According to him, the transactions included deposits and cash withdrawals that he did not consent to, as well as a suspicious payment of N100,000 to an unknown person, Aderinoye A. Quazeem.
He said he was the sole operator of his savings account and he did not receive any alert or notification from the bank about the activities on his account.
Ezeike suspects that the fraud was perpetrated by an insider, especially Ibrahim Akeyan, a former Ecobank staff at the Sango Ota branch in Ogun State, who he had a close relationship with before relocating to Dubai.
He said he used to leave money with Akeyan for deposits whenever he could not join the queue at the bank and that Akeyan knew his account details. He said there was never a problem then, but he believes Akeyan tampered with his account later.
He told the Foundation for Investigative Journalism that; “Mr. Ibrahim Akeyan was an employee of Ecobank at its Sango Ota branch in Ogun State. He was a regular face. Several times I would leave deposit money with him if I was unable to join a queue for some reason. We related freely and he knew my account details. There was never a problem then,” the Dubai returnee said.
“He is the person I suspect had tampered with my account due to that relationship I had with him. Some events that played out after I reported the missing money to the bank further reinforced my suspicion against him and even the bank itself.”
However, when contacted, Akeyan denied knowing Ezeike and said he dealt with many customers and could not remember the name. He said the customer should approach the bank for whatever issues they have and that he handed over properly before exiting the bank.
Ezeike said he reported the fraudulent transactions to the bank’s branch at Redemption Camp of the Redeemed Christian Church of God on November 22, but the bank official who attended to him said his account had been blocked and the request for a statement of account could not be processed. He said he later obtained his statement of account covering November 1, 2018, to March 30, 2021, from another branch and found out that all the transactions were done at the Idi-Iroko branch.
He said he contacted Aderemi Adeleke, the customer service manager, and Olajide Folake, the branch manager, of the Idi-Iroko branch and demanded a thorough investigation.
He said he was shocked when Ibrahim Akeyan called him on his new Nigerian phone number, which he had given to the bank officials. He said he confronted the bank officials and they admitted that they had given his contact information to Ibrahim without his permission. They said they wanted to inform Ibrahim of the investigation before arresting him. Ezeike said this made him lose trust in the bank’s handling of the matter.
He said the bank had scheduled four meetings with Ibrahim Akeyan, but he failed to show up for any of them. He said the case had now been escalated to the head office and a virtual meeting had been arranged.
However, Ibrahim’s non-compliance continues to hinder progress, leaving Ezeike in the dark regarding the status of the investigation and the recovery of his funds.
This incident highlights the urgent need for a comprehensive investigation into the alleged misconduct, and Ecobank is under scrutiny for potential internal lapses that may have facilitated the unauthorized transactions.
As the investigation unfolds, the bank faces growing pressure to address these serious allegations and provide a transparent account of the events surrounding the disappearance of Peter Ezeike’s funds.
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