•Bank: Our investigation revealed no internal compromise or wrongdoing
A storm of accusations and counter-accusations has engulfed Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) as one of its distressed customers, Olanrewaju Sobowale, grapples with the mysterious disappearance of the sum of N5,990,000 from his account. GBENGA ADERANTI writes on the face-off between the bank and the aggrieved customer as efforts are on to unravel the mystery surrounding the missing funds.
How could the staggering sum of N5,990,000 vanish from a bank customer’s account without a trace? Why did Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) respond to the situation with indifference, allegedly asking the customer to simply accept his fate? Who or what is responsible for the abrupt disappearance of the sum in question, and what chance does the customer have to recover his hard-earned money?
The foregoing are the questions agitating the minds of observers as Mr. Olanrewaju Sobowale, a building contractor, engages GTB in a showdown over his missing money.
Sobowale’s troubles began on Friday, August 8 when a client who needed to facilitate the execution of an urgent project deposited the sum of N5.9 million in his account only for the money to vanish in less than 40 minutes, plunging Sobowale into confusion and distress.
He had made an attempt to withdraw the sum of N40,000 from the account shortly after it was credited, using a Point of Sale (POS) terminal. To his bewilderment, however, his request was declined.
At first, he thought it was a question of network glitch, so he left the vendor’s location to seek an alternative way of withdrawing money from the account. But his worries were aggravated when he tried to purchase airtime from the account only to be greeted with a barrage of text messages announcing that his account had been debited.
Adebowale said the practice before than was that his client would make direct payment for building materials while he would only be paid for workmanship.
“But on this particular day, as dusk began to set in, he (client) made the spontaneous decision to transfer N6 million into my account, promising to send the balance of N1,077,000 shortly after,” Sobowale explained, a hint of despair lingering in his voice.
His client had promptly sent a receipt via WhatsApp, indicating the sum deposited in his account. But despite receiving a notification to that effect, he discovered that the actual balance in his account did not change.
To assuage his worries, he tried to carry out a transaction at a nearby POS vendor. Again, to his surprise, his request was declined after multiple attempts. “I inserted my card and entered my password, it was declined again and I thought maybe the machine was faulty,” he said, noting that his fears mounted with each failed transaction.
He waited for another 10 minutes and checked to see whether his account balance had changed, but he found himself confronted with the same obstinate issue: no funds had appeared.
To avoid hampering the ongoing construction project, Sobowale’s client made another deposit into his Opay account, which he was able to access without complication.
Later that evening, Sobowale made another attempt to withdraw funds from his GTB account from a different location, but despair settled in once more as the transaction was again declined. While holding on to the hope that it was merely a network issue that would soon rectify itself, panic set in when he tried to log into his GTB banking app and could not access his account at all.
Feeling increasingly frantic and seeking guidance, Sobowale was advised to use his banking token to purchase a prepaid card. After finally managing to buy a card, his heart raced as he logged into his account only to discover the shocking truth: between 3:08 pm and 5:59 pm, a figure named Usama Saidu had stealthily withdrawn the sum of N5,990,000 from his account.
With his heart sinking, Sobowale knew he had to act quickly the moment he became aware of the unauthorised withdrawals. He immediately reached out to GTB’s Customer Service, desperation fueling his resolve as he made several attempts to connect.
Finally, at about 11 pm, he was able to link up with a representative of the bank.
He said: “I laid out all the details of the incident, and we spoke for more than an hour. They referred me to their fraud department, asking all the necessary questions, which I answered diligently.
“They assured me they would take action to freeze the Moniepoint account to which the funds were transferred.
“They promised to secure the account on Friday, and on Saturday, I continually followed up and told they were actively working on my case.”
The following Monday, Sobowale made his way to the GTB branch in Abule Egba, Lagos desperation and frustration boiling over as he created a scene in the banking hall. Initially, the bank refused to provide him with his statement of account, intensifying his distress.
In a dramatic turn of events, however, they eventually relented. People around him were recording videos of the unfolding situation. Ultimately, the bank was able to identify the individual who had transferred the funds, inching Sobowale closer to the resolution he so desperately sought.
Not satisfied with what he got from GTB, Sobowale visited Moniepoint for a private investigation, and he discovered that contrary to what GTB had said about holding Usama Saidu’s account, he was still using the account to which N5,990,000.00 had been transferred.
He said: “A source at Moniepoint said the money in the said account was more than N10 million, but it was confidential. The account was fraudulent.
“The source said I should thank my God that they did not take more than N5, 990,000.00 from my account.
“I pleaded with the person to hold the account, the person accepted but eventually refused to do so.”
Sobowale later discovered that contrary to what GTB told him on that Friday, the account was still being used by the owner up until the time he went to Moniepoint on Monday.
“That Monday evening, GTB called me to inform me that part of my money had been transferred to an Opay wallet, but they were tracking it.
“They did not finish delivering the message before the GTB line went dead. I made several attempts to call the number but it did not go through.”
The contact at Moniepoint later called Sobowale at about 7 pm on Monday with a private number to inform him that after discussing with her boss at the headquarters, it was discovered that the money in Saidus’ account had been moved to another place and that Sobowale should talk to GTB to help him resolve the quagmire.
“Up until now, I have been unable to get through to the number,” he said.
Later that evening, he received a call from someone who identified himself as a staff member of GTB, informing him that the money had been transferred to an Opay account.
On Tuesday, Sobowale visited the GTB at Abule Egba to inform the bank that a GTB staff member had contacted him and that his money had been transferred to an Opay wallet. But rather than address the problem, Sobowale was requested to bring a court order.
Sobowale protests
In a bid to get a reprieve, Sobowale dropped a petition titled ‘Fraudulent withdrawal from Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) Account of Mr Olanrewaju Sobowale’, dated August 14, 2025 through his lawyer, Empowered Chambers, to both the management of the GTB, Abule Egba, Lagos Branch and a copy to the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The petition reads: “Our client is a customer and an account holder with Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) with account number: 0010564955.
“On Friday, the 8th day of August 2025, our client observed that the sum of N5,990,00.00 (five million, nine hundred and ninety thousand naira) only was fraudulently withdrawn from his said account with GTB.
“Upon the said observation, our client immediately contacted the customer care unit of GTB to explain the situation.
“The bank’s representative, who attended to our client, assured him that the issue would be reported to the bank’s fraud unit for investigation.
“On Monday, 11th of August, 2025, our client visited the Abule Egba branch of GTB to follow up on the matter.
“Upon reviewing the case, the branch manager discovered that the sum had been transferred to Usama Saidu, who had a Moniepoint account with the number 6707296767.
“On the same day, our client visited the head of Moniepoint Microfinance Bank to lodge this complaint.
“After investigating the reported situation, our client was informed that the account belonging to Usama Saidu, to which our client’s money was fraudulently sent, had been emptied. i.e. the money has been withdrawn from the Moniepoint account to Usama Saidu.”
The petition alleged that the negligence and fraudulent activity caused by GTB has created “emotional and mental trauma to our client, whose health is beginning to deteriorate.”
It, therefore, urged the bank to look into the matter and ensure that the said N5,990,00.00 is refunded.
“Our client will not hesitate to initiate the necessary legal action if the said sum is not refunded within three (3) days from the day of your receipt of this letter,” the petition said.
Ephemeral hope
The drama took a new turn on Monday, August 25, 2025 when GTB pushed back and denied any complicity in the matter.
According to the bank, after reviewing the complaint, it was noted that the authentication levels of the internet banking platform were met, including the user ID, login password, secret question and answer, which are expected to be known only by Sobowale.
Responding, the GTB, in a letter to Sobowale through his lawyer, the principal Partner, Empowered Chambers, dated August 18, signed by Ilerioulwa Okunade and Nicholas Igwebuike, Group Legal Department, claimed that the transactions were completed with Sobowale’s e-token, adding “…your client was onboard on July 23, 2025, using his ATM card details and OTP sent to his registered phone number, after which the e-token was used to consummate the transactions.”
The bank admitted that, having received Sobowale’s complaint, it temporarily restricted his account to prevent further unauthorised debits.
“The bank also contacted the receiving bank (Moniepoint MFB) and got feedback that the funds were moved to Rolez MFB, Opay and Guaranty Trust Bank Limited.
“We restricted the Guaranty Trust Bank account. However, the funds had already been utilised.
“We further escalated to Rolez MFB and Opay. We received feedback from Opay that the funds were disbursed into three beneficiaries’ accounts, one of which provided services to the sender of the funds.
“We await feedback on the other two beneficiaries. Regarding Rolez MFB, we are yet to get a feedback from them.”
The bank stated that its investigation did not reveal any internal compromise or wrongdoing on the part of the bank, “as all the transactions were authenticated using the client’s card details and an OTP sent to your client’s registered phone number, which can be only accessible to him.”
It was gathered that the Central Bank is currently investigating the matter.
“It is saddening that rather than address my petition and investigate the matter, GTB decided to indict me,” Sobowale said.
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When data could be breached
While investigations are ongoing and a data breach has not been confirmed, a report by the Vice President of Financial Services at Ricoh, USA, suggests that data breaches can be attributed to hacking or malware attacks.
Other breach methods include an unintentional insider leak, payment card skimming, and the loss or theft of a personal device, such as a company laptop.
Attacks leading to a breach can take one of two forms: network or social. In a network attack, the cybercriminal exploits weaknesses in the target’s infrastructure. This type of attack may include, but is not limited to:
SQL injection: a computer attack in which malicious code is inserted into a database to gain access to sensitive information.
Vulnerability exploitation: a hacker finds a software vulnerability or security flaw into which they inject an “exploit” or piece of code to take advantage of the vulnerability.
Session hijacking: a hacker gains access to a user’s PII and a network by disguising itself as an authenticated user.
In a social attack, the hacker employs social engineering tactics to infiltrate the target network, often in the form of a highly targeted spear phishing email. The email “phishes” for information from the employee, and by fooling them into exposing proprietary company information, provides the attacker with access to protected data, such as the recipient’s login credentials.
A spear phishing email can also include a malware attachment set to execute when downloaded. According to IBM’s 2022 Cost of a Data Breach Report, the use of stolen or compromised credentials remains the most common cause of a data breach and served as the form of attack in approximately 20% of all 2022 breaches.
