First Bank To Refund N4.5m Fraudulently Withdrawn From Customer's Acct

Several times, customers of banks in Nigeria have bitterly complained of how their hard-earned money are being fraudulently withdrawn from their accounts by custodians of their funds. Accounts of deceased customers are also not spared by these financial institutions as they even prefer their nefarious activities on this set of customers, knowing that it takes a ‘lifetime’ process for families of the dead to have access to such accounts.

That Nigeria’s oldest bank, First Bank would involve itself in this kind of inhumane practice might be very shocking to many, however, some have alleged that First Bank is notorious for such activities, a claim Aproko247 does not want to believe and will not subscribe to.

On Thursday, the Acting Chief Judge of Plateau, Justice Pius Damulak, who presided over a case involving First Bank of Nigeria Plc and the family of late Bawa Yarima, who operated an account with the bank before his demise, ordered First Bank to refund N4.56 million it illegally transferred from the account of the deceased.

Justice Damulak ruled that the transfer made by the bank on the personal account of late Yarima on his demise was illegal and unprofessional. According to the respected judge, the mandate left by late Yarima on which the bank claimed to have acted on could not remain valid after his death.

The judge then declared that the transfer of N4.56 million out of the deceased personal account, without authority of the Estate Administrators, was illegal. He held that the applicant, Thomas, who is the third son of the deceased, had proved his case against the bank and that the first son, Solomon and his other two siblings, had no right to order the release of the fund without the consent of the estate administrators.

Ruling further, the court held that there was no proof that the deceased or his hotel owed the bank such an amount, stating that the plaintiff has proved his case beyond doubts and then ordered the return of the amount to the personal account of late Yarima under the estate administrators. An accumulated cost of N300,000 was awarded in favour of the plaintiff by the judge.

In its claim, First Bank, through its counsel, Ofodile Okafor, SAN, told the court that Yarima owed it N4.56 million at his demise, being an investment on his hotel, pointing out the illegal transfer was in settlement of the debt.

Okafor stated the bank was given the authority to transfer the money by the first son of the deceased, Solomon Yarima, who acts as the Managing Director of late Yarima’s hotel and estate. The bank’s counsel said there’s nothing wrong with the bank’s action.

But Thomas, through his counsel, Ibrahim Hamman, argued that there was no proof that his late father’s hotel, ’30 Hotel’, got any loan facility from the bank to the tune of N4.56 million.

Bawa Yarima died on September 10, 1996 and left behind four sons; Solomon, Bulus, Thomas and Joshua; a hotel and two First Bank accounts. In June 1997, First Bank, acting on an alleged mandate by the deceased, transferred the amount out of one of his accounts to service an alleged debt owed by the hotel.

Additional information by NAN.