How First Bank denied customer access to his N360,000 for four months

James Ogbeche, a man in Bauchi State, has accused First Bank of keeping him stranded after deducting N360,000 from his account in four months.

Ogbeche said that it all began in January, when he was attempting to complete a financial transaction online in the sum of N180,000 with his First Bank Master Card but the transaction failed at the initial attempt. He retried, but it failed again.

Rather than attempt the process the third time, Ogbeche checked his account to see if the figures were still intact but discovered that they were short by N360,000, although he didn’t get a debit alert for this deduction.

His knee-jerk reaction was to visit the First Bank branch at New Bridge Road in Makurdi to complain. At the bank, a customer service representative told him to hold on for at least 24 hours before any action could be initiated. Being a Friday, he had no choice but to wait until Monday, January 26.

Ogbeche said that upon returning to the bank on January 29, a bank staff member told him First Bank had placed a lien on his account because of the N360,000 deduction and that he would have to wait for a month for the lien to be taken off.

Ogbeche said that when the day came, the bank did not take the lien off his account but instead told him at a later date that the removal of expired liens on the account had been initiated and that “requests will be verified before the close of business” on that same day. The case has, however, remained the same since then.

He said he returned to the bank last Thursday to press his case and the manager assured him she would escalate the matter.

“She assured me that it would be resolved and that I would be able to access my money within 48 hours. I left the branch that Thursday afternoon, assured and quite satisfied with her handling of the matter, but the issue persists,” Ogbeche told FIJ.

“I petitioned the Central Bank of Nigeria on two separate occasions through its consumer protection department, but the shocking thing is that the Central Bank didn’t even dignify me with as much as a response or an acknowledgement.

“I have exhausted all civil and conventional means to have the matter resolved, and none has yielded the desired outcome. I may now have to resort to an unconventional approach. They shouldn’t continue to trample on citizens’ rights. This is the money that I earned legitimately. It is my right. First Bank is not doing me any favour.”

When FIJ contacted First Bank via email for comments on the matter, they did not respond.