Oluwatomisin Kuti, a prospective corps member, could not believe his eyes on January 3, 2019, after he read an unbelievable message from the United Bank for Africa (UBA).

As he checked his bank app over and again, Kuti could not understand why UBA wiped out the funds in his account and pinned a N495,000 debt on his name despite initiating no transaction.

A student at a foreign university at the time, Kuti did not go to any UBA branch to complain but headed to school, hoping what he found was a glitch.

He told FIJ that within the first 48 hours of 2019, the N35,000 in his account had grown to over N200,000. That same night, he said, his UBA bank app screamed he owed the bank N495,000.

Kuti said he ignored what he saw on the UBA app the previous evening and went to a nearby ATM stand to withdraw his N35,000 but couldn’t.

He said the ATM showed his bank had limited his account and advised him to visit any UBA branch, which he did without hesitating.

In February 2021, when he returned to Nigeria, he did not hesitate to go to UBA headquarters at Marina, Lagos.

“When I got to their head office, they told me someone had used my old ATM card, which went missing in December 2018, to book a 10-day hotel reservation at the Da Vinci Hotel in South Africa,” Kuti told FIJ.

“What I find surprising is the bank debiting me beyond what I had in my account at the time. Even worse, my ATM card was with me at the time of the incident.


“When my first card went missing in December 2018, I requested a new card before December 23, 2018. I expected they would block the old card after I requested a new one, but a UBA staffer told me my previous card was not blocked when I requested a new one.”

Kuti said the staffer who attended to him at the head office also informed him the bank paid over N500,000 to the hotel the fraudster used for the ten nights.

“The UBA claimed the bank realised they had paid for the transaction when it was time for reconciliation. But I don’t know why they approved a transaction greater than my account balance,” he explained.



“When I contacted UBA on its Twitter page, the handler said the solution was to fund my account so the bank could deduct the N495,000.

“How would they debit my account for an amount I never had? I stopped using the account when I realised they were debiting me. I haven’t been to South Africa, so why do I have to go through this?”

UBA told FIJ after so much back and forth in an email thread on Friday that while it acknowledged the mail, this reporter should “liaise with the account holder” to contact the bank for “further assistance”.

Hire a good lawyer ASAP

This nigga should just abandon the account and opt for another account in another bank.. how would a bank charge you more than what you have in your account for a transaction you knows nothing bout and they still want you to pay for it ? Does that means 2 different ATM can work on a single account.. I doubt that.....

Nigeria is a simulation.

Why is he surprised? He uses Uba ffs, something liket this was bound to to happen sooner or later

We have many security issues in this country.. physical security, food security, bank savings security. With all these recent happenings in Nigeria banks one will have to think twice before saving in all these banks cos they are not trustworthy anymore. Imagine saving 5000 into an account and u were debited of 50 naira from that money... is that money safe.. and that doesn't mean they won't still reduce the money any further. See logic.. atm that had been blocked was used to transact.. how

Nigerian banking security system is too vulnerable...

They're not called useless bank of Africa for nothing. They will issue another ATM card while leaving the previous one valid. Now they're debiting beyond the funds held in the account? Highly ridiculous! These banks will continue to misbehave because CBN doesn't hold them accountable and responsible for all the rubbish they're doing, the system also frustrates customers from getting justice.