Access Bank of Nigeria has been trending for what could be the wrong reasons.
According to reports, a woman had gone to claim her late brother’s ₦500 million which was kept in Access Bank.
However, on reaching the bank, and presenting her request, the woman was told that there is no account with such name and amount.
The popular activist and social media influencer, Very Dark Man has got the full details of the matter and presented to the public in a 12 minutes video which he captioned: ““IF YOU HAVE AN ACCESS BANK ACCOUNT PAY ATTENTION TO THIS, YOUR FUTURE AND GENERATION MAY DEPEND ON THIS…THIS ALLEGATION MUST BE NOT BE SWEPT UNDER THE CARPET”
In the video, Very Dark Man narrated the story with proofs from documents in his hand.
Here is a summary of the matter:
The woman claimed that his late brother with the names Idongesit Edet Awah while on his sick bed, had revealed to her sister all the property he had in his name and money he had saved up in different bank accounts.
The man couldn’t get a Will, so the sister went to get a Letter of Administration of the property of the late Idongesit Edet from the High court in Kaduna State where the brother had lived.
With the Letter of Administration, she will be able to claim all the property owned by her brother, including all the money he had in his accounts.
The woman on people’s advice wrote to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) with the brother’s BVN, demanding to know all the bank accounts his brother had with the BVN.
CBN responded to the letter with all the bank accounts connected to the BVN, which are:
- Guarantee Trust Bank (GTB)
- Diamond Bank
- Keystone Bank and
- Diamond/Access Bank.
The amount revealed by the CBN in each of the accounts were the same with what the late Idongesit on his sick bed had told his sister.
They are as follows:
- Guarantee Trust Bank (GTB) = ₦10 million
- Diamond Bank = ₦2.9 million
- Keystone Bank = ₦3 million
- Diamond/Access Bank = ₦500 million
The woman took the letter she received from CBN and went to GTB, and requested for her brother’s account and the money therein, of which GTB complied and gave her the ₦10 million.
Keystone Bank also complied and paid her the ₦3 million her brother had with them.
Then she went to Access Bank and demanded for her brother’s account ₦2.9 million. She was however told there was no such amount in the account.
The woman said no, that if the other claims corresponded, there is no way this one can’t be true.
After the bank kept sending her away for almost a month, the woman got frustrated and held the bank manager who was a woman to a fight. That was when they admitted that the claims were true and later paid her the ₦2.9 million.
Lastly, it was time for the ₦500 million account in the other Access Bank account. That was where the major issue started.
When the woman reached there and required for the account, the bank told her there was no account with the name Idongesit Edet Awah.
She presented the BVN to them, they checked and could not deny the fact that there was an account with that name in the bank.
So the woman asked them how much was in the account, they said there was no money in the account. She then requested for the account statement, dated 20, December 2019, of which Access Bank presented her with an account statement of ₦1.68 Kobo.
The woman was not satisfied with the report, convinced that her brother did not lie if the other ones had corresponded.
She got a lawyer who wrote a letter to the bank, and the court also wrote demanding a full statement of account. However, from 2019 till May 2024 with letters being submitted, the bank refused to comply.
It was until a petition was written few months ago that Access Bank responded with a full statement of account, which didn’t tally with the information the late Idongesit gave her sister.
The statement of account that was presented dated from 2020 to 2024, instead of from 2016 when the account was opened.
Access bank claims that the man opened the account with ₦0 and never deposited any money into it, as the account statement they later presented reads.
The woman believes something is not sitting right, as she accuses the board members of Access bank of siphoning the funds, and trying to cover it up.
That is the matter on ground as revealed by Very Dark Man, who believes there is something fishy about the whole thing, and has promised that he will not keep quiet or let this case go down until something is done
Very Dark Man also noted that Nigerians are not safe, that the future is not safe either, because if this sort of thing continues, people will not be able to access the funds their parents kept for them in the banks. Or rather, our children will be deprived access to the funds we saved in the bank if something happens to us.
There have been a lot of reactions on this issue. Netizens have criticised Nigerian banking industry for similar fraudulent acts.
Nneka Brendel Ejike wrote: “This is common with Access bank. That was how they deducted more than 300k from my brother’s account with no tangible reason. Very useless bank”
MrFitness tried to advise the woman on what he thinks is the best thing to do, saying: “If you have proper document to prove that there was Money in that account, report the case to CBN with all necessary documents, also involve the help of Mr Falana SAN if you can. You will get justice & those behind this heinous act shall be apprehended & prosecuted.”
“We have alot of criminals working in the Bank. No Bank is safe in this country. Only God will help us,” Ivri Oghenerabome wrote.
King Brave said he has transferred all his money from Access bank which many others confirmed doing same.
“I just transferred all my money in access bank to fidelity just now, like VDM said, our first protest will be everyone should pull out their money from that bank, funny enough if they later bring out the money people will never trust them again, it simply means they will will really learn the hard way.”
