Businessman alleges illegal N5.9m withdrawal by ex-Keystone bank manager

Bala Ibrahim, an account holder with Keystone Bank, has lamented the illegal withdrawal of N5.9 million from his account allegedly by the erstwhile manager of a branch of the bank in the Agege area of Lagos State, Tijani Saleh.

According to a report, Ibrahim opened a corporate account with the bank and funded the account with N20m.

Shortly after funding the account, Ibrahim said he was in need of N5.9m to fund some of the projects his company was doing but had yet to be given a cheque to withdraw money from the corporate account.

In a bid to get the money withdrawn, Ibrahim said he approached the bank manager to advise him on the options to explore to enable him to withdraw the money, adding that the manager demanded the letter-headed paper of his company to process the request.

The businessman, however, said things took another dimension when without his consent, the bank manager allegedly used the letter-headed paper to make an unauthorized withdrawal of N5.9m from his corporate account.

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Upon discovering that the money had been withdrawn when he requested his statement of account, Ibrahim said he raised the alarm, and the bank, after getting wind of the manager’s action, sacked him.

He, however, noted that the bank had yet to refund his money despite knowing that the erstwhile manager was responsible for the unauthorized withdrawal.

“I then reported the matter to the EFCC but the matter was turned against me and I was charged to court. We spent over five years on the case before I was finally discharged and acquitted.”

Ibrahim said after the case was concluded, the EFCC failed to charge the bank to court or compel them to pay him the money.

“They accused me of withdrawing the money and yet claimed for a reversal. I wrote several letters to make them reverse the money. They have refused. I wrote the EFCC to charge them to court as they did to me but they refused. All I want is my money back,” he said.

Reacting, the spokesperson for Keystone Bank Plc, Edward Ettu, in an email said a forensic report showed that Ibrahim withdrew the money through a counter cheque.

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Ettu partly stated, “When the matter was reported to the police, they went further to investigate the N20m lodged into the account of the customer. The customer refused to allow his fingerprints, amongst others, to be taken but eventually, a forensic report showed that he was the one that withdrew the money through a counter cheque because his chequebook was not ready.

“That judgment neither said he had money with the bank nor that the bank debited his account legally. That did not come up in court at all. The same man that is asking about N5.9m filed a suit against the FG, EFCC, and the bank claiming damages to the tune of over N2 billion but did not make any claim of N5.9m against the bank.

“Up till now, there is no suit against the bank on N5.9m. Our record shows that he was the one that withdrew the money and the forensic examination conducted on his writing and signature proved that. It is not true that the bank debited his account illegally and no court order said so.”