Tosin Olami (real name withheld), a Lagos State resident, has revealed how N231,000 was stolen from her 71-year-old father’s Zenith Bank account last year.

Olami told FIJ the incident happened on March 23, 2022, when her father tried to withdraw some money via an automated teller machine (ATM).

According to Olami, her father initially tried the ATM of a United Bank for Africa (UBA) branch in Otigba, where a woman offered to help.

Her father later went to a Zenith Bank ATM, but the machine seized his debit card. As he left the bank with the hope of retrieving his card the following day, N231,000 disappeared from his account.

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“After he inserted his ATM card, the lady pressed the keys and asked my father to input his pin, and she walked away,” said Olami.

“When the money did not come out after my father had waited for a while, she came back to ask him if he had taken his money, to which he said no. She cancelled it and his card came out.”

“My father said she then advised him to re-insert his debit card, but as soon as he did so, there was a strange noise from the machine. The machine still did not dispense cash.

“While he was waiting for the machine to dispense some money, the lady quickly left the ATM gallery. He had not received a debit alert at this point, and the machine failed to dispense the requested money.”

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Olami said her father then decided to visit a Zenith Bank to see if his bank’s ATM would dispense cash that day.

“From the time he left the UBA to the time he got to a Zenith Bank branch, there was no report or debit alert from his bank.”

She noted that the Zenith Bank ATM rejected his debit card but he kept trying until the machine seized his card.

“He said he planned to return to the bank the following day to get his card, so he left for his house. As soon as he arrived home, he got a debit alert of N231,000,” Olami said.

“He has been going to the bank since then. The bank sent him a transaction journal showing that the money landed in a First Bank account, but they have not been able to recover the money. They asked him to get a court order, and he really needs that money to buy his medications.”

When FIJ contacted Zenith Bank on April 3, the bank said there was no debit of the referenced amount on the customer’s account on March 23. The bank, however, refused to comment after a screenshot of the transaction journal was sent that same day.