Published 2nd Aug, 2022

By Tola Owoyele

A Kaduna State-based company executive has accused Access Bank of negligence and poor customer experience after N22 million was stolen from his car inside the premises of one of the bank’s branches on July 22.

The customer, who asked not to be named for security reasons, told FIJ that he had gone to withdraw the sum from several banks around the Kaduna metropolis so he could prosecute a project being carried out by his company.

“I had already withdrawn N22 million from other banks within the Kaduna metropolis before visiting the Access Bank branch on Isa Kaita Road, Kaduna, to make further withdrawals,” the customer said.

The company executive’s car after the theft

“I visited the branch because I needed to make additional withdrawals so I could pay the people who were working on our construction sites their wages.

“Despite being a top priority customer, the bank officials wasted my time for close to 35 minutes before they eventually attended to me. All the while, I had my vehicle parked inside their premises.

“After I was eventually attended to, I immediately left the banking hall, only to find that the glass window at the back of my car had been completely smashed open by unknown persons where I had it parked. When I looked closely into the car, the N22 million I kept in two separate Ghana-Must-Go bags had been stolen!”

The company executive said when he explained what had just happened to one of the security guards manning the bank’s entrance gate, the guard said he would have paid special attention to his vehicle if he had known something valuable was kept inside it.

“The truth is, while I was driving into the premises, one of them (the guards) was quite reluctant to let me in. It was at that point that I told him that I had a very serious transaction to carry out and that there was money inside the car,” said the company executive.

“The funniest part is that it was not as if the premises was so busy that a car could not have been allowed to be parked inside or properly monitored.”

The company executive said that since the occurrence, the bank was yet to reach out to him officially on the way forward.

“Some officials of the branch only came out to show concern after the incident happened on that day but that was where it all ended,” he said.

“Since then, none of them has called me, apart from my account officer, to officially tell me what the bank plans on doing concerning the theft. This happened right inside their premises!”

The customer said he had reported the incident to the police and that investigations were ongoing.

When FIJ contacted Access Bank’s customer care desk for comments on the incident on Monday, Ikpe Uchechi, one of the bank’s officials, said the matter had been escalated and that feedback would be communicated to the affected customer.

However, when FIJ reached out to the aggrieved customer on Tuesday, he said he had not received any calls or a message from the bank.

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