With more people conforming to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s cashless policy initiative, it has become increasingly difficult for robbers to hit a jackpot in their criminal adventure, since many now hardly keep money at home or carry extra cash at any given time. As a way out, they have taken their forays to the streets, cornering people in buses and taking them hostage while they clean out their account, using their atm cards. Dorcas Egede captures one such story, as told by a victim recently.
If anyone had told Evi Iwaha when she left home last Friday for a prayer vigil, that she would return home cashless and phoneless, she would most likely have gone for that person’s jugular or labelled him a liar from the pit of hell. But she did run out of luck that fateful Saturday morning on her way back from an all-night prayer at her church Obanikoro, as some fierce-looking men hijacked the bus she was commuting in, took all passengers hostage and proceeded to rob them all of their valuables.
Evi said “It happened a few minutes to 6.00am; I’d boarded a bus supposedly to Oshodi from Obanikoro. No sooner had the bus moved than they sprang into action. The first thing they did was grab my phone; ‘What do you do? Where are you coming from?’ one of them asked. I was hopeful that they’d take pity on me, having told them I was just a primary school teacher. Why bother to ask if it meant nothing to them? After rummaging through my wallet, they found two ATM cards and some cash. The question that followed hit me with a bang. ‘What’s your pin number?’ Instinctively, I hesitated for a while, but a resounding slap on my face soon got me spilling it out. These guys were actually going to do the unimaginable. They were going to clear my account.
“To think that I was about experiencing stories that had seemed far away. I looked up in time to see another member of the gang, sitting in the front seat. They called him officer. I don’t know if he was some military officer or if the name was just a code name. Even though I was still a little dazed from the slap, I couldn’t but notice the gun that hung loosely in the man’s hand, as he spoke to his colleague.
“He quickly handed the ATM cards to another member who played the role of a bus conductor. The driver slowed down at my inquisitor’s command, and the bus conductor jumped off the bus on his way to emptying my accounts. I silently wished I had payed the money into my friend’s account, he had asked me to do so to avoid spending it, since I’m saving towards paying my rent.
Meanwhile, while we awaited the arrival of the messenger, the bus kept going round and round. In the process, the two women I met on the bus were told to disembark, and two others, a guy and his girlfriend were picked up at the next stop.
“They were lucky, as they didn’t have any ATM card on them. They were ripped of their phones and the only one thousand Naira note the guy had on him. They had also searched the lady who came on at the same time as I did. Obviously they didn’t get much from her. I was their sacrificial lamb. Soon my phone beeped – an indication that the money had been withdrawn. Then they drove back to the spot where they had dropped off the bus conductor, picked him up and drove off. By all means, it was a smooth operation, and we were home-bound now. I silently prayed that they dropped me off at a safe place.
“All along, I didn’t know where we were because I had been sitting on the floor of the bus. Suddenly, the bus pulled to a stop and we were all told to alight. I discovered that they had dropped us at the toll-gate. My inquisitor who had promised to give me transport money to take me home had either forgotten or couldn’t care less. They zoomed off as soon as we were all out of the bus. I stood there thinking of how to get to my place in Gbagada, until one good Nigerian who happened to be passing by came to my rescue by giving me N100, my exact fare home.” Evi finished off.
For her it was one incident she had never imagined, experiencing.
Mr. Karo, an aggrieved relative of Evi told this reporter that bank officials and the police should put heads together and ensure that these people are stopped from this wicked act. According to him, “If a robber forces an individual to reveal his ATM pin, and goes to make a withdrawal himself, the camera footage should be able to help the police trace and capture the robbers.” He wondered why such pictures cannot be handed over to the police, so that they can go public and declare such person ‘Wanted.’
A top bank official, Mr Ugo explained to The Nation ways in which ATM robbery can be discouraged. He said, “Once everyone fully embraces the cashless policy of the government, withdrawal of cash via ATM machines will drastically reduce, and the Central Bank will be able to reduce the general daily withdrawal limit to say, N10,000. Naturally, this will discourage robbers from engaging in ATM robbery or fraud, especially if they consider the hassles they would have to go through to steal an ATM card that would only fetch them N10,000 maximum.”
Even though more people are going cashless and the queue to withdraw cash over the counter seems to have reduced considerably, a lot of people have taken to ATM withdrawals and still carry cash around. He believes that when more people buy into the idea of paying through POS machines, the need to carry cash will drastically reduce.
“If the guy selling CD by your house, no matter how small his shop is, has a POS machine, all you need to do is swipe your card when you buy CDs from him. Abroad, even the taxi man has a POS machine in his car…” he stated.
Ugo aceded to the fact that Nigeria has yet to come to that point where people do not carry cash around, unlike what is obtainable in countries like the UK, where cash-in-transaction is so rare that one attracts looks of surprise from cashiers by merely presenting as little as a 50 pounds bill at pay point. Sometimes, they even consult their supervisors to confirm that the note isn’t fake. He affirmed that when Nigeria as a society finally comes to that point when the people get used to paying with credit and debit cards, the use of cash withdrawal at ATM machines will become minimal and discourage ATM robbery.
Mr Orire, a latter generation bank staff, told this reporter that there are several ways to tackle the ATM theft and fraud menace. The first he said, would be for customers to reduce their daily ATM withdrawal limits to the amount of risk they can bear in the event of a robbery. He explained that it is possible for banks to set daily ATM withdrawal limits for indiviual account holders, adding that once this limit is reached, they would not be able to make any more withdrawals from their account until the next day.
Mr Ugo also said it is possible to configure individual ATM cards to personal daily withdrawal limits, but that the cost implication would be much more than many banks are ready to take on at the moment.
For now therefore, he said people may have to depend on the general daily withdrawal limit set by the CBN.
As an alternative, Mr Orire advised that people should make it a habit to keep their ATM cards at home when they do not have need for them.
One respondent, a well-travelled sports journalist said another way of combating such robberies is to give the robbers a reverse form of one’s PIN (number). For instance 1976 becomes 6791. He said the account will automatically lock-down and an alert would be sent to the security personnel. He said it will also help them trace the criminal, as his photo would be automatically captured at that moment.
Derin, also a banker, says the best thing to do is to have two separate accounts, one that would be for daily use and the other, where the bulk of your money would be kept. She said, “Personally, I have two accounts. One has more cash than the other one. When I need to do a transaction that requires much money, all I need do is transfer the amount needed from the account with more cash into the one that has little or no cash at all.”
With this, she said there would be no need to carry around the ATM card to the bulk money account. When reminded that people who do not subscribe to internet banking cannot transfer cash from one account to the other, she maintained that for the security of their money, everyone must ensure that they do mobile or internet banking. “This helps to reduce the risk of fraud. Even internet fraud that many people are scared of falling prey to doesn’t happen by chance. One would have to give out certain personal information (in error) with which the account could be hacked into.”
One other way to tackle ATM fraud according to Mr Orire would be for banks to device some form of distress pin, an alternative pin number. A customer who finds himself in distress, or is under duress to release his pin to robbers can give them this alternative pin number, which as soon as it is keyed into the ATM, would trigger the machine to hotlist the card. And once a card is hotlisted, it can no longer be used until the account holder writes to the bank to de-hotlist it or issue another one. This, he said would be a veritable way to protect people from ATM fraudsters and discourage the perpetrators from carrying on in this nefarous act.
When the Lagos Police Public Relations Officer, Ms Dolapo Badmus was contacted on how well the police are working with the banks to forestall ATM-related crimes, she responded in an sms that “There has not been any reported case of ATM robbery of recent. The police has duty to protect the ATM, just as we have to protect lives and properties.”
Her advice to the public therefore is: “Security is everyone’s business, report every crime and criminality.”
Asked if she reported the incident to the police, Evi replied in the negative. Attempts to inquire if her bank lodged any report with the police were tactically rebuffed, as they kept promising to get back to this reporter but never did.
