Published 6th May, 2023

Nelson Emakpo, a Delta State-based engineer, has detailed how N881,000 mysteriously left his UBA account.

Emakpo told FIJ that the incident happened between January 12 and 14.

“On January 12, I just thought to check my phone when I saw that quite a few debit notifications had been sent to me by UBA,” Emakpo said.

“I first thought the notifications had been sent to the wrong person, but after a close examination, I discovered that a few unauthorised transactions had actually been effected on my account.

“I actually started receiving the debits a week after I had visited a UBA branch in Abraka to request that my internet banking application be fixed.”

Emakpo went on to speak on how the money was stolen from his account.

The Debit Alerts Received by Emakpo on his UBA account.

“The first notification I received was for a debit of N161,753, transferred to an account belonging to Desola Buch,” said Emakpo.

“After this, another N200,000 was transferred to his e-Naira wallet. He also did a top-up of N20,000 to 08137643352, his phone number.

“To stop the fraud from continuing, I immediately reached out to the bank so that a restriction could be placed on my account, and they later confirmed to me that the account had been frozen.”

Emakpo told FIJ that he was forced to visit the bank branch the following day because he needed to still withdraw some money from the same account.

“After I withdrew the money I needed from the account, I instructed them to again freeze it, so that the fraudsters would be prevented from stealing from it,” said the engineer.

“Unfortunately, UBA did not place the restriction back on the account. That same afternoon, the fraudster gained access to my account once more and wired money from it.

“This time, N200,000 was stolen from my account and transferred to an account belonging to someone called Dandare Aliyu. Just like the previous day, an additional N20,000 top-up was done to 08137643352, the same number.

“Throughout the period, I did not bother to check my phone for notifications. My thought was that the restriction had been placed back on my account.”

Emakpo told FIJ that another set of debit notifications were further sent to his phone on January 14.

“On January 14, when I eventually checked for notifications, I felt weak when I discovered that money had once again been stolen from my account, despite my instruction that the restriction be placed back on my account,” said Emakpo.

“This time, N200,000 was transferred to Kolawole Omoyeni, while another N80,000 was transferred to his e-Naira wallet.”

“I have been asking UBA to return my stolen money to my account since January, but they have not been forthcoming. From January till date, and any time I reach out to them to ask for an update, they would give me a holding response, saying that UBA is still working on my dispute.

“I want them to return my money to my account. I wouldn’t give my debit card out to someone else to use. This theft happened after I visited their branch for help on my internet banking access.”

When FIJ sent an email to Ramon Nasir, UBA’s head of media and external relations, on May 2, he responded by requesting for the customer’s account details, full name and phone number, just so a “proper investigation could be conducted”.

On May 4, FIJ sent another email to ask for an update, but got no response.

A day later, FIJ asked Emakpo if he had received a feedback from the bank, and he replied by saying one of the bank’s officials, who simply identified herself as Sarah, called to give him the same response he had been receiving since January, that the “bank was still investigating the matter”.

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