Rights Activist, Comrade Ichie Leads Protest To Access Bank For Deducting N4.8m Dubious Charges From His Account

P.M.EXPRESS reports that the protest, which was held at the premises of the Bank in the morning on 8th February, 2024, witnessed the presence of some human rights activists and victims who had suffered similar fate with the bank.

The protesters displayed some placards with different inscriptions demanding that the bank should refund the money, which they usually withdraw very late at night so the owners will not know.

Speaking during the protest, Comrade Ichie stated that the protest to the bank was to register his displeasure for not refunding the excess charges taken from his account weekly and monthly respectively as well as notifying the general public about the activities of Access Bank.

Ichie stated: “Today the 8th of February 2024, we demand that our money be investigated, everyday there is an unauthorized deduction from Access Bank.  We demand an explanation on why there is so much deductions unlike other banks, which also have deductions but not overly excessive”.

“We are demanding for our rights and if nothing is done we will make sure all Access Bank offices are shut down until they regulate their charges. We will use Access Bank as scapegoat because all banks in Nigeria do almost the same thing.”

“As a business man that does transactions everyday, I rarely take note of debit alerts from my account except those I initiate by myself. But recently, around 11pm I saw a debit alert from Access Bank of over N50,000 and this won’t be the first time.”

“As I further investigated into previous months, I found out it’s been going on for a while now. After submitting my complaints to the bank for a correction/refund of excess charges, it became worse. Now, sometimes I get debited the sum of N80,000 – N90,000 as end of the month deductions. There was a time they deducted the wholesome amount twice the same day.”

“I went to the bank to complain and they said perhaps there was a carry over deductions from last month, I was surprised because the end of the month deduction was also carried out last month. My complaint was noted but with an unclear explanation stating that during the course of my account opening i signed for tax deductions. I asked to be shown the documents where I signed but they had no evidence.”

“A letter has been written to Access Bank headquarters and the reply was that their Auditors will get to the root of the matter. For two months, I have not heard from them, even after writing another letter. Hence, the reason for the protest to make public our displeasure with an ultimatum of 14 days for a favourable feedback of refund of N4.8m.”

“After 14 days from today 8th February, 2024,  if Access Bank fails to return the N4.8m to my account, we will take legal actions against them by taking them to Court.”

Comrade Ichie, who is also the founder of AMPEF (Voice Of The Voiceless Media), further stated that the activities of Access Bank should be subjected to scrutiny for illegal deductions and other extortion vices of debits which occurs in their customers account. He charged that the CBN should take disciplinary action on Access Bank with immediate effect.

Some victims, who were also affected by Access Bank’s excessive deductions joined in the protest to also register their displeasure as to why such unfounded debit alerts occurs on their accounts.  This has reinforced that it was not only Comrade Saviour Iche that is the victim; there are many victims who had suffered similar thing but did not know how to tackle it like Ichie.