Police Clear Bank Executives Over N9.3bn Deposit

The Special Fraud Unit (SFU) of the Nigeria Police Force says a system failure resulted in an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) displaying N9.3 billion in a customer’s account.

Durojaiye Job, a student of the Polytechnic, Ibadan had on August 13,  raised an alarm after discovering the amount in his First Bank Plc savings account.

DCP Salisu Fagge, head of SFU, told newsmen in an interview in Lagos that investigations into the allegation by Job that some bank officials attempted to use his account to defraud the bank had been concluded.

Fagge said Job’s petition, which was sent to the DIG “D” Department, Force CID in Abuja through the Commissioner of Police, was referred to his unit for investigations.

“When the student discovered the huge amount of money in his account at about 7.30 p.m, he was so much shocked because he only had N4,000 of his own in the account.

“He then used his card to withdraw N20,000 from the ATM to convince himself that the figure was real.

“After the withdrawal, he informed the bank’s Branch Manager and the Operations Manager of the huge deposit in his account.

“But the bank executives denied knowledge of the transactions and also denied the boy a request for a statement of his account.

“The student who suspected that the bank executives may have attempted to use his account to commit fraud, returned the N20, 000 he withdrew with his ATM card and alerted his lawyer who wrote a petition to the DIG.

“The unit invited the two bank executives and both denied knowledge of the transaction.

“But on further investigations into the case, the Chief Internal Auditor and the Information Technologist of the bank confirmed that the huge deposit was as a result of system failure,’’ he said.

Fagge said a comprehensive report of what transpired on some of the accounts in the bank, including that of Job, between 6.30 p.m. and 7.00 p.m. when the system failure occurred was brought to the unit.

“Based on the investigations carried out by the unit, there was no evidence of fraudulent transfers to any customer’s account.

“The bank also did not record any financial loss as a result of the system failure which occurred, and the error was detected and rectified some minutes after it occurred,’’ he added.

Fagge however advised Nigerians to emulate the steps taken by Job in alerting the bank about the alleged fraud, instead of making away with the money.