KINGSLEY EBERE
A human rights activist and President of of Ambassadors for Peace and Enlightenment Foundation, AMPEF, Comrade Saviour Iche, is still in shock over discovery that for the past 18 years money running into millions of Naira has been missing from his Access Bank account.
P.M.EXPRESS reports that Comrade Iche has warned the management of Access Bank PLC to return all his money, which were withdrawn from his account without his consent for those years.
He threatened that if the bank refuses to refund all the money illegally collected from his account, they should be prepared for criminal and civil litigation over their conduct.
An embittered Prince Ichie expressed shock on how some staff of the bank had been tempering with his money and when he went to ask why, they claimed that he had monthly turnover with the bank and they decided to be deducting certain amount of money from his account as tax.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Bright Future Hope Enterprises stated that he did not notice until on 31st October, 2023 when he received four alerts within five minutes at about 11.00pm indicating deductions from his account and luckily he was still awake.
Iche explained that on that 31st October, 2023, he received the following alert: Monthly turnover DBA charge, N57,586,02, Debit tax deduction from source N4,318
95, DBA charge N2,500 and Debit tax from source,N187,50.
He stated that he later went to the Access Bank branch at Ojuwoye in Mushin, Lagos, where he opened the account 18 years ago to ask why they were deducting his money arbitrarily.
Comrade Iche stated that it was then it dawned on him that the bank has been removing money from the account for a long time from their response. According to him, one of the senior staff of the bank told him that the bank realized that he usually makes rapid turnover and the bank was removing the money as tax, commission etc.
He stated that one striking thing about the withdrawals he observed was that the money was usually withdrawn late at night and on further enquiry the bank official said that he may have signed documents empowering the bank to withdraw such money.
Comrade Iche stated that his organization has received so many complaints how banks have been withdrawing customers money from various accounts and giving it one fictitious debit name and go free with that.
He regretted that the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, created those lapses, which contributed to the impunity going on in the banking industry and there is no Sanction to the management to serve as deterrent to other bank staff.
He also advised the CBN to come out and educate the people to know their rights and limitations when it comes to the banking business in Nigeria.