Are you a customer of Access Bank, Lagos Road, Ikorodu? Then this story must surely interest you and other customer of various banks in Ikorodu division. There now seems to be two types of security men in some banks in Ikorodu, one group real, the other fake.
A young man, Mr. Toyeeb Ademola Salahudeen is today still crying out through his solicitors, through the police command and through the media that he went to Access Bank, Lagos Road, near Ragolis Water on January 25, 2016 to deposit N370,000 from his madam in business.
According to the man, he was welcomed politely by a man who dressed like a banker in smart black trouser and long sleeve and black suite, whom he assumed was a security man. The supposed security man. directed him to where he was to deposit money and he joined the queue.
Mr. Toyeeb approached another man dressed in a similar manner as a security man for help to direct him to the special room for heavy lodgments.
The second security man, who turned out to be fake, offered to deposit the money for Mr. Toyeeb and collected both the N370,000 and the slip the depositor had filled and walked into the bulk room of the banking hall and vanished thereafter.
Toyeeb said he waited for about 30 minutes and went into the hall in search of the fake security man, and when he did not find the man, he raised an alarm which attracted the bank manager and other staff.
When the victim insisted that the man was a staff, the manager denied it hence Mr. Toyeeb requested to view the CCTV recording. The management sent for an engineer to operate the CCTV and directed Toyeeb to provide policemen before he would be allowed to watch the footage.
Toyeeb told Oriwu Sun and his lawyers that the policemen, his family approached at Sagamu road station demanded N30,000 to accompany them to the bank and later took N15,000 the next day for the investigation.
At the Access Bank on January 26, 2016, Toyeeb, his madam and the police officers watched the footage and saw the man who took away the money. The bank manager re-affirmed that the fellow was not a bank staff; hence, Toyeeb and the owner of the huge money requested for hard copies of the surveillance photos with which they can start their own investigations.
Between January 26 and March 15, 2016, both the bank and Sagamu Police Station did not release the photos to the defrauded victim even when solicitors to Mr. Toyeeb, FIT Aliyu &Co, wrote a strong letter to the DPO Sagamu road, dated February 3, 2016 and copied to several groups including the Lagos State Commissioner of police and Lagos State Attorney General.
The aggrieved citizen cried to Oriwu Sun newspaper and the publisher, Chief Monzor Olowosago, with three reporters, Fathima Abdul, Segun Adeniyi and Kaffi Oshoala immediately went to see the DPO on the matter. This was after Oriwu sun reporters had earlier gone to the Access Bank manager to get his true side of the story.
Mr. Toyeeb had told Oriwu Sun that the Bank Manager’s name is Biola, but our reporters got a different identity when they met the bank manager.
According to our correspondents, the bank manager, who claimed to be Ahmed, said in a short inconclusive interview:
“I don’t have anything to say about the matter; I am not expected to talk to journalists. The police are the ones that can talk to you; they are the authority investigating it; you can go to Shagamu Road division Police Station, where the customer reported. So, please go to them. I am Ahmed, just Ahmed,” he said in a jittery (unsettled) manner.
With the unsatisfied information provided by the Bank Manager, Oriwu Sun publisher, with some reporters, proceeded to Sagamu Road Division Police Station in order to see the DPO.
The DPO, Mr. Chris Adeyemi, summoned the investigative police officer in-charge of the case, IPO Oshoba, to give his account of the story requesting for the reason behind the withheld footage that was not released to the victim. The IPO explained that he, as the investigative officer in charge of the case, discharged his service effectively and with utmost sincerity in order not to jeopardise the confidence entrusted on him by the bank manager.
“Sir, I took a bold step immediately this case got to me. I and the victim’s father visited the bank the second day in order to have access to the CCTV and I made the victim realise that day that his negligence caused him a lot. I told him he should not have released that huge sum of money to anybody even if he knows him well. In his explanation. He furthered, “The bank manager did not want to release the copy of the footage for me; he feared to be given a bad image, likewise the bank itself. I applied for the copy on an official grant before I was given and I filed it up myself I feel it is not necessary to release it to the victim because the picture is not vivid.
The DPO, however, debunked the IPO’s thought stressing that the victim has the right to be given the copy. “It is left for them if the picture is not clear enough but as a police officer in charge, you are meant to clarify issues; you do not keep mute and complicate the matter,” he said.
The DPO in his remark admonished the IPO Osoba to always make his priority right. “Your priority as a police officer should be service to humanity. You are meant to ensure justice prevail over the matter. Do your job first and accordingly, you will be rewarded,” he said.
The DPO, Mr. Chris Adeyemi, assured Oriwu Sun Publisher over the release of the copy of the footage given to the IPO. He also commended the effort of the veteran journalist and expressed his gratitude, stressing that his doggedness and ingenuity has contributed to the uncovering of the myth that has been attached to this case. He also explained that the plaintiff’s negligence made him lose the money, admitting that he might not have been favoured if the police were to write a petition about the case.
“We have been fed with different cases of all these fraudulent activities going on in banks. They reported a similar case to us recently which occurred at First Bank. Many people fell victim because banks do not even monitor the people that visit the bank; how many people will they monitor? Therefore, it is left for the individual to reject being stupid. You will not believe that it has happened to one of our police officer before; he had no choice because he knew he was the one stupid,” he said.
He, however, assured that keen interest has been taken by the police about the rampant fraud issues and they have started their surveillance on all banks in Ikorodu to fish out people of such fraudulent acts.
The IPO, Oshoba, later handed a copy of the printed footage that carried the picture of the man, who collected the money from the plaintiff, to enable the media house expose the culprit in their bid to give a fair hearing to the plaintiff.
Toyeeb’s tragedy leaves many unanswered questions. Is it possible, in this security challenged environment, for a bank to allow its gate and entry point to the banking hall to be manned by fake security men?
What if robbers are invading a bank; is there no one monitoring the surveillance cameras in such bank for an alert?
Can a fraudster enter a bank and disappear if there is no collusion from within?
Is it possible for a bank not to have real security men at the point of welcoming and directing customers to points they will be attended to in a banking hall?
Is it possible for the genuine security men employed by a bank to be unaware of an impostor assumed by customers to be a security man directing and guiding customers in the bank.