An ICT consultant, Mr Nonso Okoye has lamented the freezing of his accounts across all Nigerian banks by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), since September 2021.
Okoye said one of his banks, Sterling bank revealed to him that they wrote the apex bank to place his Bank Verification Number (BVN) on watchlist, after a certain amount was withdrawn from his account by unknown persons.
He lamented that even after the system glitch which caused the debit on his account was resolved, the apex bank was yet to lift ban on his accounts, causing him untold hardship, and inability to attend to some sick relatives, which resulted in the death one.
He recounted his travails saying: “Some personal experiences in the recent past have given me reasons to be extremely bothered about the credibility of the banking institutions in Nigeria.
“Most times, focus is placed on identifying financial crimes perpetrated by fraudsters, however, it is worrisome to note that little or no attention is paid to some individuals who have been employed to provide services in banking institutions yet are at the forefront of committing grievous financial crimes.
“On the 14th of September, 2021, I received a notification from Sterling Bank that a new internet banking application had been launched and as their esteemed customer, I was advised to install for upgrade.
“I noticed that after installation there was the unusual process of the application automatically creating a mobile wallet for the account. I tried using my card afterwards but it wasn’t functioning, I decided to pay for a service rendered to me via transfer, using the application without success.
“Subsequently, I could no longer log into the application to access my account. I reached out to the Customer Care representative and was reassured that it was routine procedure and the account would be active in no distant time.
“The bank stated that the policy during onboarding of new applications, was to restrict transactions in such accounts within 24hrs for security purposes, to ensure the account owner is the person truly performing the transactions.”
Okoye continued, saying that: “The login error continued into the next day and I had no choice but to visit the nearest Sterling bank branch. On arrival, I was informed that the systems were experiencing a network glitch hence, the difficulty in accessing the application.
“According to the representative who attended to me, it was a general challenge. During that period, complaints from customers ranged from having failed transactions to malfunctioning or even disappearance of the mobile wallets.”
Okoye said when he later gained access into the sterling internet banking app days after, no transactions could be performed. He tried to transfer some money between two sterling accounts and even the mobile wallet but all to no avail.
But few days later, he received a debit alert of NGN132,335.58 which was the amount in one of the accounts. He said he raised concerns and the customer care representative apologised and promised to look into it, but he noticed that the account balance showed he was rather owing the bank NGN167,660.15.
He lamented that since September to date, all his accounts have been blocked, and even though Sterling bank stated that it wrote to CBN to watchlist his accounts, letters to the apex bank to unblock his accounts have been ignored, just as sterling bank has not made much efforts to get CBN to unblock the accounts.
The IT expert said his bank, sterling bank asked him to pay N200,000 into his account to defray the over N160,000 debit on his account, which he did, but was also withdrawn immediately.
He told journalists that he had contemplated engaging a lawyer to sue the bank, but fears that it may be a waste of scarce resources as the bank may be more equiped for legal action than he is. When THE RAZOR NEWS contacted the customer care of the bank, their lines range severally without answers.
Okoye’s news continues…
I became a constant caller and the Sterling representative never failed to create a case for me with the unending promise to resolve the issue. Sadly, the resolution they came up with was to send a signal to other banks to block my account. As surreal as this sounds, this was my reality. I got information from other banks I have accounts with that Sterling Bank had watchlisted my BVN and that had led to the blocking of all my accounts regardless of the bank.
I complained again and the Sterling representative suggested that I credited the account with NGN167,660.15. I expressed my concerns about such unusual suggestion and was informed that although I had been notified that the transactions were unsuccessful when the network glitch occurred, all transactions had been approved and it was about NGN400,000. He assured that once I obliged, the issue would be rectified AND ALL THE MISSING FUNDS SHALL BE SENT BACK TO MY ACCOUNT.
To ensure I didn’t serve as an obstacle through the whole process, I obliged and credited the account with 200,000NGN. Immediately, NGN167,660.15 was debited, leaving a balance of NGN32,339.85. At this point, both the account the money was sent from and the mobile wallet had less than NGN7.00. Also, all my accounts remained blocked.
All these happened at a time two elderly members of my family were in critical conditions at the hospital, one was booked for an eye surgery and the other, transplant. The deposits for their health needs could no longer be accessed because of the situation at hand and unfortunately, one of them died.
All efforts to understand why other bank accounts were affected proved abortive. The only recommendation was to sort out the issue I had with Sterling Bank. Consultations were done and the representative at Sterling Bank promised that the account would be active in 30 minutes, this came after so much pressure. True to his word, the account was activated. The account with the balance of NGN32,339.85 was intact but I had to test it by asking friends to pay into it.
The irony remained that only Sterling accounts were working while all other bank accounts, including my corporate accounts were blocked. The account officers across other banks insisted that Sterling Bank had to officially write them to lift the ban. Sterling Bank claimed that they had written to CBN to remove my BVN from the watchlist but that had not been implemented. My fear was the routine long process taken by government institutions in engaging the right action. My fears were confirmed when in November, 2021, I called back the Sterling representative to understand why other accounts were yet to be unblocked. His response was that they had written to CBN but nothing had been done. I also wondered what happened to the 400,000NGN erroneously debited during the system glitch in September and he replied saying he had no answer to that.
After this call, I tried logging into the application and I realised I had been blocked again. I have written to Sterling yet no response. I have engaged the services of a lawyer to write to the management of Sterling but the silence is deafening. I have also threatened to go to Court but on a deeper reflection, would there be any change? CBN, without due diligence, watchlisted my BVN and hasn’t considered reverting.
It is difficult to blame them when it is almost impossible for court rulings to be implemented. Is CBN only result-oriented when the high and mighty are gravely affected? Is it because I am a common citizen who is genuinely making ends meet? What exactly is my offence?
Going to Court may increase the level of oppression because Sterling Bank may have access to the best SANs to judge the case but I hope to fight for my right. I lost someone to this issue and it would be unjust to let this slide.
Without doubts, to think that only angels exist in our financial institutions is immoral. Till date, all my accounts remain blocked. That is 7 months on. What is the fate of the common man on the streets? I feel strongly that so many financial crimes must have taken place during the system glitch. There is also a possibility that there is a cartel that consistently works to defraud people and as soon you raise concerns, the best option is to watchlist your BVN in order to silence you.
If this is not the case, why hasn’t the bank responded to any of all letters? Let it be known that only one bank reached out to inform me of the blocked accounts, others implemented the ban without due notification. What happened to customer relations? There is so much rot in the system and there is no better time than now to address it.
This is my story! Who is next?
