Ecobank has made a refund of N501,000 to Oghenefejiro Emmanuel, a Lagos-based finance officer, whose account was debited without his consent.

Emmanuel confirmed the reversal to FIJ on Wednesday.

“Thank you, FIJ. I got a refund from Ecobank today,” he said.

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“Excellent journalism.”

On November 23, FIJ reported how N501,000 was deducted from Emmanuel’s Ecobank’s savings account.

Emmanuel had told FIJ that he opened the account for the sole purpose of saving.

“In December 2018, I opened an Ecobank account solely for saving. I had a debit card when I opened the account, but I kept it somewhere. I never got to see it,” Emmanuel told FIJ.

“In 2020, I needed to use some money, but I realised the debit card had expired, so I left it there.”

He further said that the money was deducted from his account in September after he asked a friend to bring his debit card to his present country of residence.

“When my friend left Nigeria, he had a stopover in Cairo on September 9, and the same night, N1000 was debited from my account,” he said.

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“Then on September 12, I got debits of a N100,000 and then N200,000 twice in quick succession, but unluckily, I didn’t see the debits until it was too late, because I would usually leave the phone at home.”

His efforts to get a refund after the deductions were futile.

FIJ noted that his account was credited two weeks after the publication.