N81,000 belonging to Gabriel Olatunde, a Lagos resident, is yet to be returned two months after his debit card got trapped in an Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) belonging to the United Bank for Africa (UBA).

While speaking with FIJ on Saturday evening, Olatunde said the stolen sum had still not been refunded to him.

“Ever since the N81,000 was mysteriously stolen from my account after my debit card was trapped by a UBA machine on December 7, 2024, there has been no news on its recovery,” said Olatunde.

“I even went to the police station in Shomolu afterwards to see whether anything could be done to help me recover the money, but nothing fruitful came out of the complaint I went to lodge with the police officers I spoke with.

READ MORE: UBA Customer’s Card Was ‘Swallowed’ by ATM… Then His N81,000 Vanished

“I have really suffered since the incident happened. I can’t even pray for my worst enemy to lose that kind of amount in this present economy we are in. I am yet to recover from losing that sum. More importantly, UBA’s continued silence on the matter shows it is still adamant that the whole fraudulent incident isn’t its fault.”

On December 20, FIJ reported how the amount mysteriously disappeared from Olatunde’s account after his debit card got trapped in one of the ATMs situated at UBA’s head office in Marina, Lagos.

The moment his card got retracted by the machine, he told a security guard who was on duty but was told to come back on December 9 to officially lodge a complaint in the banking hall. The incident happened on December 7, a Saturday.

As he headed home, hoping to return to the bank on December 9 to officially lodge a complaint, he suddenly received a debit alert of N81,000 on his account. The debit notification he received showed the fraud had been perpetrated via a web platform.

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Olatunde subsequently visited UBA’s head office on December 9 to complain and was made to watch video footage that did not eventually reveal the identity of the fraudster.

When FIJ sent an email to UBA’s contact centre for a reaction to the incident on December 19, one of the bank’s officials, who simply identified him or herself as Tolu O., issued the following response:

The confirmed repudiated transactions amounting to N81,000.00 were card present (CP) POS transactions carried out with instant debit Mastercard with pan 51*********0327 issued to and collected by you.

Investigation shows that the card PAN was read by the POS terminals used for the repudiated transactions confirming the person who carried out the transactions had custody of the physical card containing your card sensitive details/credentials.

United Bank for Africa was not negligent as the repudiated transactions were duly initiated and authorised with the card PAN details in custody of the customer and other privy card credentials known to you only.

In this response, the bank official failed to take cognisance of the fact that the email they responded to had been sent by a journalist and not the affected customer himself.

While attempting to absolve the bank of any wrongdoing, Tolu O. also failed to shed light on how Olatunde’s trapped debit card was retracted after he left the bank’s premises and then used to carry out a web transaction by unknown persons.

READ ALSO: After FIJ’s Story, UBA Returns N298,600 to Delta Engineer

In November, FIJ investigated a trend of bank customers’ debit cards mysteriously getting trapped in ATMs. The trapped cards were always fraudulently used to steal millions of naira from their owners’ bank accounts.

The banks involved never took responsibility for the incidents. Also, none of the affected customers were able to get their funds back.