From Jeff Amechi Agbodo, Onitsha
An ICTs Consultant and Software Developer based in Anambra state, Mr Chinonso Okoye, has appealed to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to unfreeze his bank accounts blocked in September last year over a network issue while making a transaction with a commercial bank.
Okoye in a statement made available to Daily Sun said that the continued blocking of his entire accounts has brought hardship and death of a relative due to inability to access his money to perform surgery on the family patient who later died.
He said that long after the issue had been sorted out with his commercial bank and a letter written to CBN to unblock his accounts to no avail, saying that since September last year till now all his accounts remained blocked.
Okoye noted he later engaged a lawyer who also wrote to CBN to unblock his account to no avail, stressing that h has resorted to faith and prayed CBN to act on several letters written on his behalf to unblock his accounts to have access to his money.
He narrated his story, “on the 14th of September, 2021, I received a notification from a bank (name withheld) that a new internet banking application had been launched and as their esteemed customer, I was advised to install for an upgrade. I noticed that after installation there was the unusual process of the application automatically creating a mobile wallet for the account.
“I tried using my card afterwards but it wasn’t functioning, I decided to pay for a service rendered to me via transfer, using the application without success. Subsequently, I could no longer log into the application to access my account. I reached out to the Customer Care representative and was reassured that it was a routine procedure and the account would be active in no distant time.
“He stated that the policy during onboarding of new applications was to restrict transactions in such accounts within 24hrs for security purposes, to ensure the account owner is the person truly performing the transactions. The login error continued into the next day and I had no choice but to visit the nearest branch.
“On arrival, I was informed that the systems were experiencing a network glitch hence, the difficulty in accessing the application. According to the representative who attended to me, it was a general challenge. During that period, complaints from customers ranged from having failed transactions to malfunctioning or even disappearance of the mobile wallets.
“After some days, I gained access into the bank internet banking app however, no transactions could be performed. It is important to state that the two accounts I have and the mobile wallet created are integrated into the application. In order to ensure the system had been restored, I tried to transfer some money between the two accounts and even the mobile wallet but all to no avail.
“Few days on, precisely on the 20th of September, 2021, I received a debit alert of N132,335.58 which was the amount in one of the accounts. Apparently, it was a deduction for a transaction that was performed during the network glitch. I raised my concerns and the customer care representative apologised and promised to look into it.
“Another weird observation was that the account balance was in the negative, showing I was owing to the bank over N167,660.15. Sadly, the resolution they came up with was to send a signal to other banks to block my account.
“I got information from other banks I have accounts with that the Bank had watchlisted my BVN and that had led to the blocking of all my accounts regardless of the bank.
Okoye continued: “I complained again and the bank staff suggested that I credited the account with N167,660.15. I expressed my concerns about such an unusual suggestion and was informed that although I had been notified that the transactions were unsuccessful when the network glitch occurred, all transactions had been approved and it was about N400,000. He assured me that once I obliged, the issue would be rectified and all the missing funds shall be sent back to my account.
“To ensure I didn’t serve as an obstacle through the whole process, I obliged and credited the account with N 200,000? Immediately, N167,660.15 was debited, leaving a balance of N32,339.85. At this point, both the account the money was sent from and the mobile wallet had less than N7.00. Also, all my accounts remained blocked.
“All these happened at a time two elderly members of my family were in critical conditions at the hospital, one was booked for eye surgery and the other, transplant. The deposits for their health needs could no longer be accessed because of the situation at hand and unfortunately, one of them died.
“The Bank staff promised that the account would be active in 30 minutes, this came after so much pressure. True to his word, the account was activated. The account with the balance of N32,339.85 was intact but I had to test it by asking friends to pay into it.
“The irony remained that only that accounts were working while all other bank accounts, including my corporate accounts, were blocked. The account officers across other banks insisted that originating Bank had to officially write them to lift the ban. The Bank claimed that they had written to CBN to remove my BVN from the watchlist but that had not been implemented.
“To date, all my accounts remain blocked. That is seven months on” Okoye lamented.