WHAT has remained a puzzle to Ade-yemi Durojaye, a Higher National Diploma (HND) 1 Student of The Polytechnic, Ibadan, is the identity of the person who lodged N9,309,019,869.91k into his savings account.

More puzzling, however, is the swift manner with which the money disappeared from his account without any trace of it in his statement of account.

According to the civil engineering student, he had a little over N3,000 in his account and was going home for the weekend on Friday, 13th August, 2010.

So, Durojaye went to the First Bank of Nigeria Plc, Ibadan Poly 4 branch, with the intention of cashing N2,000.

It was about 6.57 p.m., so, he had to use his Automated Teller Machine (ATM) card.

"I was perlexed when I printed out my receipt and saw the balance in my account. I became weak and tired. Nine billion, three hundred and nine million, nineteen thousand, eight hundred and sixty nine naira, ninety one kobo. How did this amount get into my account?" I wondered.

To authenticate the ATM's claim, he withdrew N20,000 from the amount. But on Saturday when he went to check his account again, the money had disappeared from his account.

He, however, went to report the incident to the manager of the bank, a woman, on Monday morning.

He declared his intention to return the N20,000 he withdrew from the amount. The bank manager gave her approval but collected the triplicate copy of the teller which Durojaye used to lodge the money into his account.

Durojaye later collected his statement of account, which had no record of the over N9 billion in it.

Although it has the record of the N20,000 which he refunded, that had also disappeared from his account, leaving a balance of a little over N1,000.

When the Nigerian Tribune visited the branch on Wednesday, the manager was said to be on leave while the Branch Operation Manager, claimed ignorance of the incident and referred the Nigerian Tribune to the bank's head office in Lagos.

http://odili.net/news/source/2010/sep/5/624.html