Published 17th Nov, 2022

By Opeyemi Lawal

Ajogwu Ochada, a Nassarawa-based businessman, has recounted how he lost N200,000 in his business account with Zenith Bank.

Speaking with FIJ on Thursday, Ochada said that on July 3, he received a series of debit notifications for unknown transactions around midnight. He also said when he tried to stop the transaction, the bank told him he didn’t have an account with them.

“On July 3, around 1:39 am, I received a debit alert of N50,000. I wondered who had initiated the transaction because I was sleeping,” Ochada told FIJ.

“I later found out the debit was from a SportyBet transaction I didn’t initiate. I tried to stop other transactions that might still happen with the Zenith Bank USSD code, but it wasn’t working.

“I kept dialing Zenith Bank’s *966*911* code repeatedly, but the feedback message was that I did not have an account with them and should open one.”

Ochada added that after the first debit, the debits came in successions, and within two hours, his account was emptied.

“Just as I predicted, the debits came in successions after the initial N50,000. The money was deducted in multiples of N40,000 and N10,000 until all the money was gone.

The businessman said after he sued Zenith Bank in Nassarawa, the bank stated that he had initiated the transaction and had done so with an iPhone 14.5 model.

“I sent an email to Zenith Bank immediately, informing them about the fraudulent transaction and asking for a refund. When their response came in, they said they had stopped further debits but couldn’t review the transaction, which stalled the recovery of my money,” he said.

“Zenith Bank claimed I used an iPhone 14.5 model to initiate the transaction. Meanwhile, iPhone 14 was officially launched in September 2022.

“How could that have been possible? There was no iPhone 14.5 model anywhere in the world on July 3, when this illicit transaction took place.

“I only opened the account in April, and by July, I had lost N200,000.”

FIJ’s email to Zenith Bank for comments had not been responded to at press time.

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