A female petty trader based in Owerri Imo State, Ms Angelina Ulunma Nwagwu has cried out bitterly over a recent unexplained withdrawals done on her bank account domiciled at Union Bank Plc, Douglas Road Owerri Imo State.
She pointed accusing fingers at the Bank Manager and one of the bank’s staff at the Customer Service desk of taking advantage of her complaint to the bank on her lost phone to pull out over one hundred and nineteen thousand naira (N119,000) from her bank account.
Ms Nwagwu ran into a group of journalists rolling on the ground weeping and when asked what her problem was, explained that, her bank, the Union Bank has killed her. She narrated that on the 19th of May, 2020, her bag containing her phone and other valuables was snatched from her in the market.
When she got to the bank at Douglas Road Owerri, she went straight to the manager, Mr Emmanuel and laid her complaint. The manager according to her directed her to one Doris at the customer service desk to do the needful. Doris after hearing from the client (Angelina) checked through the account belonging to the complainant and luckily, the account was not tampered with then and Angelina requested to be allowed to withdraw the sum of N40,000 from the account before it is blocked
She was paid and told to go home that the account has been blocked until she comes back to give instruction for unblocking it. Angelina said she went home happily that fateful day and proceeded to go and retrieve her line from MTN office of which she succeeded in blocking the said line as well as retrieving it.
Continuing, Ms Nwagwu disclosed that she stopped making use of the account until when someone paid in some cash into the account and she got an alert. It was discovered that the only cash remaining in the account was the one that was just paid on that September 20th. All other savings in the account were gone.
Angelina who couldn’t believe her eyes rushed back to the bank to make enquiries on what went wrong and behold it was discovered that in the evening of that same day May 19th she went to complain to the bank about her ordeal, some withdrawals were made thereafter. Again, next day being 20th of May, another withdrawal was made on the account and the rest of the money pulled out on the 21st and 28th of May.
When she asked why the unwarranted withdrawals after being assured that the account has been blocked against unauthorized withdrawal by fraudsters, the Bank Manager with the Customer Service lady started blaming her for not filling forms for the account to be blocked.
It was thereafter they gave her a form to fill and the account was blocked. When she asked what she can do to get her lost savings back, the manager said that there is nothing they can do about that after all, she did not fill their form requesting for her account to be blocked.
Angelina an orphan is now threatening to hang herself if the bank fails to return her money because according to her, the manager Mr Emmanuel and the Customer Service lady Doris are aware of what transpired in the withdrawals.
When this newspaper visited the bank to ascertain the truth of the matter, the Bank Manager who gave his first name as Emmanuel actually recognized Angelina but denied knowledge of what she was saying.
Mr Emmanuel told the press that they are now on top of the matter pointing one Eze in the Fraud Investigation Department as the one handling the case. But when Eze was confronted, he reluctantly said that the case is still pending on his desk.
The last straw that broke the camel’s back was when Angelina visited the bank again to know the outcome of the investigation and the Bank Manager who collected a copy of the statement of account which one of the staff printed out for her, tried to cease the paper but Angelina snatched it from him hence he allegedly started deleting some information from his system.
According to Angelina, when she asked the manager what he was doing, the manager told her to go to hell or call the police that she cannot win the case anywhere. It was on this premise that Angelina Ulunma Nwagwu, a native of Ugirike in Ikeduru LGA of Imo State, is now threatening to kill herself if after 14 days her money is not returned to her.
The orphan queried why the manager should use the issue of not filling forms as an excuse for not securing her account, stressing that after all, it is also the same bank that has been telling her customers to always make phone calls to the bank for their accounts to be blocked if they sense danger especially when one loses his or her ATM card or handset.
