An 87-year-old woman, Mrs. Sanusi Adebisi, has filed a lawsuit against Union Bank Plc over the N253,000 withdrawn from her account in the bank through internet transaction in October 2013.
The claimant who sells drinks in Orile-Agege, had been the sole signatory to her account since 1970’s before her health deteriorated due to an eye tumor and her only daughter, Sanusi Ifedayo, was included as a joint signatory to the account.
Adebisi told the Magistrate’s Court at the Ojokoro, Agbado area of Lagos that she just got N200,000 of the sum from her cooperatives to undergo surgery for the tumour in her eye which is now impossible as a result of the scam.
The claimant daughter, Sanusi Ifedayo told the court she did not know anything about internet banking and that is why she rejected the use of ATM card for the account, but an official of the bank insisted that she applied for it, saying some amount could not be withdrawn across the counter.
“I had withdrawn N40, 000 for Mama (mother) that day before the scam. It was my husband who went to greet her that very day that noticed the debit alerts on her phone.
I wrote a letter of complaint to the bank and its officials promised to investigate the matter. After a week, I was told that the money was withdrawn online by an unknown person. I don’t even know how to operate a Facebook account not to talk of using Internet for transaction. The bank is in best position to tell us what transpired,” she said.
She also claimed she had not disclosed the ATM pin to anyone.
Meanwhile, the claimant’s counsel, Mr. Gbenga Julius, showed the court, a signed and stamped printout of his client’s statement of account gotten from the said bank which the defence counsel, Mr. Seyi Solaja, rejected.
Solaja argued that the exhibit was null and void under Section 84 of Evidence Act, as it did not correspond with the one the bank issues to its customer.
However, the magistrate, Mrs. T. Akani adjourned the case to July 27, 2014 for further hearing.
