Rebecca Ochi (pseudonym), a PoS agent, erroneously transferred N900,000 to a United Bank for Africa account on February 4. Rather than place a restriction on the recipient’s account, UBA did nothing until Ochi got a court order. UBA refused to act throughout the period Ochi processed the order.
The delay allowed the recipient withdraw the money.
Ochi got to know Godfrey Chukwuemeka Okwudi, the UBA customer and recipient of the transfer, through her PoS business. The erroneous transfer, she told FIJ, happened because their names looked similar.
“This customer (Okwudi) started coming to my shop. On February 3, he came to do withdrawal and transfer up to N45,000 with his ATM to his UBA account. Then on February 4, I wanted to transfer money from my PoS device which is an OPay account to my UBA, so I erroneously transferred the money to his UBA account. I mistakenly clicked his name because both our names start with ‘O’,” Ochi explained.
“When I noticed that the alert did not come, I thought it was delaying, so I waited till the end of the day. The next day again, when I wanted to use my ATM to withdraw the money. It started showing me ‘insufficient fund’. So I went back to check the PoS. That was when I discovered I sent the money to the guy.”
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Transaction receipt for the erroneous N900,000 transfer.
That very day, Ochi informed her brother’s friend, an former UBA staff, who then escalated the issue to a banker who still works with the bank.
The UBA staff told Ochi that Okwudi had withdrawn a part of the money, and the money was only remaining about N400,000. The staff told her to get a court order before Okwudi’s account could be restricted. This, FIJ found to be laxity from the bank. It often takes about two weeks before an order of the court can be obtained.
What’s more, that Okwudi withdrew from the strange funds that landed in his account within 24 hours was enough encourage the bank to immediately freeze his account until all had been resolved.
Without delay, Ochi employed the services of a lawyer who told her that the court was not ‘on seat’. The lawyer, however, generated her a motion of court pending the time the court order would be ready.
When Ochi submitted the motion to the UBA staff, she was told that Okwudi had withdrawn the remaining money with a PoS machine, and the bank could not lend her further help.
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After Ochi cried profusely at the bank, a female staff at the bank requested Okwudi’s number and promised to call the customer.
Ochi told FIJ that she reported the issue at a police station. The police IPO assigned to her then told her to get another court order from Delta State except she was willing to pursue the case in Onitsha, Anambra State.
Ochi also made efforts to visit a hotel in her street to inquire about Okwudi’s whereabouts, but they said he left the hotel the morning Ochi made the wrong transaction.
Okwudi refused to take all the calls she put through to him. She also asked about him from Chinenye, a neighbour with whom she had seen Okwudi, but she denied knowing him.
Godfrey Okwudi. Source: Facebook
“One of my neighbours that I saw with him the day he came to my shop, I think she is his girlfriend, she said she doesn’t know the guy. [She said] that the guy lives in Abuja, and that he only came in for work and lodged. She said she doesn’t know where he is. At a point, she even said she doesn’t the guy at all and that I don’t know what I’m saying,” Ochi told FIJ.
FIJ called Ramon Nasir, UBA’s spokesperson, on Wednesday but he said he preferred an email instead. He had not responded to FIJ’s email at press time.
FIJ also called Okwudi on Saturday but his response was incoherent and unclear. When FIJ asked him if his name was Okwudi, he hung up immediately. FIJ called him three times afterwards but he failed to answer.
Chinenye did not answer FIJ’s calls either.
The post How UBA’s Delayed Action Cost PoS Agent N900,000 After Erroneous Transfer appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.