The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Tears

  • Tears as councillor is buried

    •His last moments, by widow

    Many could not control their emotions last Friday when the remains of Bariga Local Council Development Area (LCDA) ex-councillor, the late Solomon Adewale Awokoya, were interred at his Pakuro, Mowe, Ogun State home.

    Those who gathered to pay their last respect to the departed councillor were in tears.

    The late Awokoya, represented Ward ‘C’ in the Bariga LCDA Legislative House, died on Saturday 7.

    He was survived by his mother, wife, Ibukun, 50, and two children Ayomide, 22, a student of Tai Solarin University of Education, Ogun State and Olajide, 20, Kwara State University student.

    The church service was held at The First African Church Mission (Ebenezer Parish), Popoola Street, Bariga.

    The officiating ministers were led by Revd Adewale Adekunle. He advised the congregation to always be God-conscious.

    Mrs Awokoya said she was devastated by her husband’s death.

    According to her, the late Awokoya’s priority was to assist the people in his ward.

    “He always told me to be patient and even asked my friends to plead with me to exercise patience because he wanted to give back to the community,” he said.

    Recounting his last moments, Mrs Awokoya said: “On Friday night, he went round to play with some people and returned home with some empowerment materials he wanted to distribute to the people in his ward on Sunday. He met some guests outside the house, played with them and saw them off to the Bus-Stop. He returned home and by 11pm; he told me to wake him around 6am that he wanted to meet the council chairman at the secretariat for a council event. He took his bath and sat on the chair.

    “I went to sleep around 11:30pm. Around 1:30am, I went to the restroom and saw him working on his phone. I said ‘you should be sleeping by now because of your early morning event at the council’ and he said ‘okay.’ I returned to bed. Not quite long, I heard him coughing continuously and quickly rushed out, asking what happened! My daughter also came out, he couldn’t say anything. I thought he was having cold; I quickly switched off the fan; got a bottle of Robb and anointing oil to rub his body. I called his younger sister, neighbours and some friends. We quickly rushed him to a hospital but the doctor said he needed oxygen and some other things. He advised we take him to Gbagada General Hospital. We got an ambulance and headed to the hospital. It was at Gbagada General Hospital that another doctor told us that he was dead. We have not even brought him out of the ambulance. I couldn’t believe what I heard. Just like that!”

    According to Mrs Awokoya, her husband dream was to send the children abroad for further studies.

    “He wanted to erect a borehole for people to enjoy potable water, empower the widows and youths,” she said.

    She thanked the council Chairman, Kolade Alabi, and her late husband’s friends for staying by the family.

     

  • Thai tears and other fables

    Thai tears and other fables

    Even without the online medium, The Cable disproving the claims by Minister of Agriculture Audu Ogbeh that the Thais have been in lamentation ever since Nigeria put a lid on import of rice from the country, I could have sworn that the avuncular minister goofed – big time. Seven giant rice mills – the minister famously claimed at a meeting of the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI) and leadership of the Fertiliser Producers and Suppliers of Nigeria (FEPSAN) held at the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Friday – have shut down because Nigeria’s import has fallen by 95 per cent on rice alone.

    “Just like two weeks ago, the ambassador of Thailand came to my office and said to me that we have really dealt with them”, he reportedly told his guests.

    “But I asked what did we do wrong and he said unemployment in Thailand was one of the lowest in the world, 1.2 percent, it has gone up to four percent because seven giant rice mills have shut down because Nigeria’s import has fallen by 95 percent on rice alone”, he was further quoted to have said.

    Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, would add another dimension to the issue when, during a tour of some rice farms in Kebbi State also at the weekend stated: “As we speak today, Thailand rice growers are making passionate appeal to the Federal Government. What they are doing now is that they want to set up rice mills in Nigeria, which means we have won”.

    Won?

    To start with, if anyone needed any proof of how little has changed in the rice equation trade, a trip to any of our urban markets will far more disprove claims about overnight capacity than a thousand fact-checking could ever do. Except the two ministers would have us believe that those foreign branded rice in the popular Daleko – Mushin, or Isale Eko as indeed any of our local markets are actually local rice re-bagged as foreign, only then can they convince anyone that the Nigerian rice has truly arrived! For while the Nigerian rice may seem very much in vogue at this time, the claims about availability remains more of fantasy than reality!

    Again, thanks to The Cable for laying things bare – so to speak – the medium actually reported that Thai exports of rice in January rose by 17.6 percent just as exports grew to 37.2 percent year-on-year – a trend which clearly suggests that things are actually looking up – not down – for a country said to be in mourning over the loss of its Nigerian market. And so it goes that if we excuse the ‘alternative facts’ so presented and which flies in the face of hard facts as one of those pardonable lapses in one momentary ecstasy in the aftermath of a bountiful harvest, shouldn’t the ‘realities’ which the minister admitted to at the meeting have tempered his claims?

    This, in my view is the crux of the matter. By this I mean the minister’s reference to the terrible havoc being wreaked on this nation by our ECOWAS neighbours under the liberalisation policy. Here is how the minister framed the issue: “…we have to take one strong measure against our neighbour to the West. The smuggling is really compromising our capacity on our result.

    “Too much rice, too much fake fertilizer is still coming across the borders into this country in spite of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) we have with them they are not listening.

    “Maybe if the Federal Government takes one tough action, they will come and renegotiate the terms because good neighbourliness means reciprocity… We can’t be allowing them to survive at our own expense and I believe that we will do something about it,’’ he said.

    Had the minister not earlier on, proceeded to cart home the trophy before the game was over, we would, while conceding to him as being spot on, see him as offering an important perspective to the current quest to get the nation’s rice value chain up and running. For much as many are wont to see the minister’s claim about the impact of the curb on rice imports on the Thai economy as somewhat exaggerated, undeniable is that our quest for local sufficiency – whether of rice or any other commodity for that matter – would ultimately be won or lost at the nation’s borders – with Bangkok, in the case of rice constituting a major factor in the equation. Despite pretensions to the contrary, and as troubling as the proposition appears to be, it is a reality that we have to live with for a long time to come.  I do verily believe that ECOWAS Big Brother will do well to pay attention to the permissive, inter-border trade, which aside killing our economy actually puts our national interest in grave jeopardy.

    By the way, did Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo not warn us in November last year about three ship loads of 120,000 metric tons of Thailand rice said to be headed for Nigeria? Did he not also inform his guests that Nigeria in December 2016 blocked about 500,000 metric tons of rice coming into the country?

    I recall what he said of the shipment at the occasion of the Sixth Presidential Business Forum in Abuja: “It is very clear that the rice is meant for Nigeria because they don’t consume parboiled rice in that country; they consume the white broken rice…Our neighbours do excellent business with allowing rice to come into Nigeria.” He could not have been more emphatic: smuggling of agricultural produce into Nigeria, constitute an existential threat to the country’s agricultural sector.

    So much for the spirit of ECOWAS – the 43-year old sub regional body that has become something of an anachronism in the age of Brexit and Donald Trump, our neighbours would rather play transit for goods destined for the Nigerian market – goods they do not consume but nonetheless constitute a major element of its sustenance – a case of the parasite feeding on the blood of the host with the latter permanently anaemic?

    I guess it’s time Nigeria moved to review the terms of the sub-regional treaty. After all, what the Holy Book says is love your neighbour as – not more than – yourself!

  • Benue killings: Grief and tears in myth

    SIR: Like Queen Niobe and the legendary Electra in Greek mythologies, the pains and grief of watching his subjects helplessly being massacred so hardened Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom’s resolve to damn whatever consequences even at the expense of being governor or loosing political party patronage. He cried out loudly to expose the injustice being visited on the innocent citizens through the war of genocide by a group that appeared to have the backing of some conspiratorial patrons. And instead of maintaining studied silence of helplessness or bias, some power brokers and attention seekers chose to add to the existing grief by making hate speeches to add salt to injury.

    For instance, to suggest that the killings in Benue State are as a result of communal clash or because of the enactment of anti – open grazing law appears to be gross insincerity and a hate speech.  For one to suggest that the killings are justified because of blockade of grazing routes smacks of complete ignorance, and it also amounts to hate speech.

    Meanwhile the killings continued unabated and so also are the stream of grief and tears in the land.  The massive deployment of police force and the relocation of the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris to Benue State which the president graciously ordered became a hide and seek exercise and did nothing much to assuage the tension.  Many people wondered and even cried out for deployment of the core military to crush the invaders as had been done elsewhere with ‘Operation Python Dance’ and others but the commander- in – chief who himself is a war veteran had the ace.

    He had great confidence in the ability and capacity of the police to perform.  Thus when the president wrote a letter to the Senate enumerating the steps he had taken to quell the crisis, ordering the relocation of IGP and the visit of the Minister of Interior to Benue State were listed as part of his efforts to tackle the menace.

    Despite all that, the killings continued and even spread further.  Citizens became completely disenchanted and called for more serious actions from the federal government. Those who criticized the poor handling of the situation by the federal government were branded as making hate speeches.  Those who commended or justified the killings and condemned Benue State government for enacting the anti-open grazing law were branded patriots and pampered with a studied golden silence. When the body language of officialdom suggested bias or tacit support for the agent provocateur, some poodles misread the horizon and played along.  So instead of making statements that should help to douse the tension, they justified the killings through hate speeches including verbal insults by describing the embattled governor as ‘a drowning man’, feeling that such was the officially recognized position.

    Thus despite the massive massacres going on, a chief executive of a state would describe it as a political game to beg for money. Ordinarily such would have been described as the worst of all hate speeches but it was greeted with loud silence as a mark of acquiescence.  So the orgy of killings continued with its attendant grief and tears among the hapless natives.

    However, during a recent visit to Nassarawa State, the president came down heavily on the perpetrators of the senseless killings and threatened to have them arrested.  He followed by directing the deployment a special military squad known as operation ‘Ayem A Kpatuma’ or ‘Cat Race’ to all the troubled areas in Benue and other states within the North Central Zone. With these presidential initiatives, it is hoped that the bloodbath in the Benue valley will subside and life return to normalcy again, and the citizens saved the reality and trauma of the mythological grief and tears.

     

    • Professor Jerry Agada,

    Makurdi.

  • Tears, tributes as Deji Tinubu is buried

    Tears, tributes as Deji Tinubu is buried

    Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, his Ogun state counterpart Ibikunle Amosun and wife of Vice President, Mrs Dolapo Osinbajo yesterday led thousands of friends, family members, colleagues and well-wishers to pay last respect to the late Deji Tinubu who passed on last Thursday.

    At a well-attended lying-in-state and funeral service held at the Redeemed Christian Church of God in Victoria Island, Lagos, tributes, eulogies and tears poured in freely for Tinubu, who until his demise was the Special Adviser to Governor Ambode on Commerce, Industry and Cooperatives.

    Deji had slumped while playing a novelty football match with some members of the State Executive Council at the Jubilee Chalets in Epe.

    Lagos State Government in a tribute in memory of Tinubu published in the funeral service brochure and signed by the Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Tunji Bello, described him as a great professional, who devoted time to the service of humanity.

    “He was an engineer, but he was also an engineer of sports. He was both sports man and sports lover. But he was unforgettable as a sports administrator. Those who followed him knew him as a symbol of service to humanity.

    “We had seen him enliven us on television screens and through radio waves. He was an enthusiast and an analyst. He probed the game and predicted. He pointed out weaknesses and strengths. He saw flair, he saw style, the celebrated goals. He delighted in them and infected all who listened or watched him with his full vigour and vitality about living,” the Lagos State Government said.

    Speaking at the service, Amosun described the late Deji as a man who had a deep passion for football and sports in general.

    “The last time I saw Deji was when he came to identify with Segun Odegbami’s 10th anniversary of his sports academy. Little did I know that Deji will answer the final call on January 25 which happened to be my birthday.  Deji was full of life and had a deep passion for football,” Amosun said.

    He commiserated with Governor Ambode and the State Government, adding that Deji’s call to glory was an act of God.

    “God’s ways are not our ways, when it happens like this, we have to thank Him. With all what has been said about him clearly shows that we have to be thankful to God for his life in the 54 years he spent with us,”Amosun said.

    Mrs. Osinbajo, who prayed for the family of the deceased, urged them to take comfort in God, while praying that God will sustain his wife and children.

    In his sermon, Pastor in Charge of RCCG, City of David, Idowu Iluyomade said Deji was a quintessential gentleman and a pillar, who contributed in no small way in building the house of God.

    “I have known Deji for 22 years. He was a giver and a lover of football. To the family, I want you to take solace in the fact that everyone of us will die or be raptured. Today we celebrate Deji because we know he’s in a better place. Nobody took his life, he died at the appointed time,” he said.

    Taking his sermon from Isaiah 43 verse 2, Iluyomade urged the congregation to see Deji’s death as a reminder of the futility of life and the need to submit their lives to the almighty God.

    Among the dignitaries present at the service include President, Dangote Group of Companies, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, former governor of Anambra State, Dr. Peter Obi, Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora, Ovation publisher Chief Dele Momodu, Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi, members of the Lagos State Executive Council, Body of Permanent Secretaries, members of the Lagos State House of Assembly, sports aficionados, among others.

  • Banking with tears … Tales from e-payment customers

    Banking with tears … Tales from e-payment customers

    Azuka said he was finding it difficult to feed his family of four after the incident. “I was told by my bank that it was my mistake. My account officer accused me of exposing my password and token to a third party. But, that is not correct. No one had access to these details. Banking for me, is no longer safe,” he disclosed.

    Some other customers have relived their experiences and frustration with the e-payment channels.

    Martins Chukwu, an entrepreneur, said he had no premonition he would lose N120, 000 to fraudsters on a particular Saturday, when a customer bought N120, 000 worth of goods from him. The customer, who pleaded that he had no cash, had requested for his account details to transfer the money.

    Chukwu said: “He typed the number on his phone and within few minutes, I got transfer notification alert from my bank. The alert showed that N120, 000 had been credited to my account. So, he took the goods and went away.

    “The next working day, which was Monday, I went to the bank to withdraw the money but it was not there. My account officer showed me my last transaction detail and said that the alert I got did not come from the bank and that it was a fraud. That was how I lost the money and all efforts to trace the fraudster failed.”

    Chukwu released the goods because the alert showed his previous account balance and the new deposit by the customer. That, he said, was an indication that the fraudster collaborated with an insider from the bank.

    “Up till today, I have not recovered that money,” he told The Nation. That devastating experience, Chukwu noted, has made him to always insist on cash payment no matter his closeness to customers.

     

    Knocks for e-transaction

    channels

     

    Despite the arguments in favour of the cashless policy, there are also customers that have completely abandoned the use of e-payment channels for insecurity reasons.

    The Managing Director, Parkings Limited, Emeka Chime, falls into this category. He said: “I don’t use ATM card. I make my transactions through cheques and withdrawal booklets. It is quicker and less-stressful. Poor network quality remains a major issue that reduces my confidence in cashless banking. Sometimes, you go there, slot in your card and nothing comes out but your account is debited.”

    However, the Managing Director, Magnificent Ventures Limited, Celestine Enemuo, described the evolving cash-less policy as good, even as he blamed the skepticism on commercial banks and the CBN.

    According to him, the institutions have not created enough awareness and the right infrastructure for the project to succeed. He said many bank customers have to be adequately educated on the need to keep their passwords secret.

    Analysts said banks are desperately seeking profits even at the expense of customers. Majority of the banks, The Nation learnt, are grappling with low capital bases and depressed income margins. Poor cash flow due to huge investments in power sector projects and tough regulatory policies are depleting banks’ revenue margins.

     

    Experts speak

     

    The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Forenovate Technologies Ltd, Don Okereke, said cyber criminals use skimming and trapping devices to steal credit or debit card details without the knowledge of account owners. He said there have been cases of online account takeover, where an unauthorised party gains access to an existing account by stealing the access codes and conducting illegal funds transfer to a designated account.

    Okereke said: “In today’s increasingly-connected world, convenience, speed, technology adoption and payment options allow people and businesses to conduct online financial transactions with ease.

    “Fraudsters are taking advantage of this trend to fleece customers of their funds. A leading bank has been bragging of its capacity to open instant bank accounts via Facebook and even approve loans online. I advise banks not to sacrifice security and safety of their customers for speed.”

    Besides, Okereke said that some bank customers are yet to get accustomed to the dictates of cashless banking and all the issues associated with it.

    He said that some discerning and security-conscious Nigerians deliberately avoid the policy because of the inherent loopholes.  Many of these customers, he added, lost confidence in their banks after many reported fraud cases.

    Former Country Manager, IBM West Africa, Taiwo Otiti, said the rising cases of e-fraud prompted global payment companies like Visa and MasterCard to raise the standard of technology deployed in the country.

    Otiti said: “The standard for Visa in Nigeria is the strictest in the payment system worldwide. Visa stipulates a very, very high standard for Nigeria. We have seen syndicates collude with internal staff of banks to transfer funds to fraudulent accounts. The easiest way is to get a normal card, open an account and get someone internally to transfer funds into the account. The funds are withdrawn mainly through the ATMs.”

    Otiti, who is now General Manager at Central Securities Clearing System Plc, explained that in other cases, online fraudsters could compromise a customer’s account by demanding his token.

    “They can send you a mail asking you to generate a token, and it will be unwise for you to oblige them. Remember, each time you generate a token, the system in the bank waits for further instruction that will come either from the fraudster, or from you,” he warned.

    Otiti said that securing customers’ transactions require the collaboration of the account owners and the lenders. “When customers give fraudsters access to their accounts, by revealing their secret codes, they lose their money. But there have also been issues of insider-collusion, where bank officials collude with fraudsters to defraud the customers,” he said.

    Otiti, however, said that banks can invest heavily in technology to stop fraud, but regretted that many of the lenders do not want to make such investments.

    He said: “There are technologies that can help banks fight frauds better.  But many of them have refused to invest in key technology. We have to remind them that banking thrives on trust and security which every serious lender should provide.”

     

    CBN’s position

     

    CBN’s Director in charge of Banking Payment Systems ‘Dipo Fatokun said the introduction of chip-and-Personal Identification Number (PIN) cards have led to drastic drop in ATM card fraud. He said the apex bank and other relevant institutions have been able to reduce frauds considerably by instituting ATM Fraud Prevention Group and the Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum (NeFF). The groups, he explained, were formed by the banks to collaboratively share data on fraud attempts and proactively tackle them.

    According to Fatokun, the CBN has instructed banks to set and enforce the mandatory daily withdrawal limits for ATM users, while other related transactions, including PoS and web purchases are subjected to stringent limits as agreed and documented between the banks and their customers.

    Data from the CBN showed that although e-fraud rate in terms of value dropped by 63 per cent last year, after the BVN introduction and improved collaboration among banks via the fraud desks, the total fraud volume rose significantly by 683 per cent within the year compared to 2014 figures.

    Also, the Nigeria experienced a total of 3,500 cyber-attacks with 70 per cent success rate and loss of $450 million within the last one year mainly through cross channel fraud, data theft, e-mail spooling, phishing, shoulder surfing and underground websites.

    Fatokun explained that one common thing about electronic fraud was that when money is moved fraudulently from one account to another, it could easily be traced.

    “And so, identifying the owner of that fraudulent bank account using the BVN, will not only be able to identify him or her in the bank he has moved the money to, we also identify him in all the banks where he has accounts.

    “And when legal impediments are overcome, such people could be blacklisted, or watch-listed in the banking system. That will also assist us to a great deal, in curbing the menace of fraudsters,” he said.

    The CBN director, who spoke on the theme: “Exploring new protective measures against social engineering vulnerabilities”, said social engineering has common phenomenon in cybercrime attacks in Nigeria.

    “Almost on a daily basis, a plethora of messages are sent by these criminals with the express intent to con the unsuspecting recipient using techniques that appeal to vanity, greed or authority. It is, therefore, important that we look critically at measures that will protect the industry as a whole from the menace of social engineering attacks.

    “It is often said that people, processes and technology are the tripod on which cybersecurity lies, with discussion ever hovering on which is the weakest link. I must however submit that like what is required in building any chain, we must prepare to forge each link with the same degree of heat – in other words, no link must be too important or less significant in the pursuit of payments security.”

    On the implications of such blacklisting on customers, he explained that for commercial banks, opening an account or having a bank account itself is a contract.

    Fatokun: “It is a contract between a willing customer and a willing bank. So, if a bank notices that a particular customer is fraudulent, or is a criminal, the bank has the right to get out of the contract.

    “And another implication is that if an account is watch-listed, if there is a credit into that account and every other person is having his credit within two to three minutes, because the account has been watch-listed based on past activities, credit into such account may be withheld for a longer period while investigations are carried on to actually confirm that it is a genuine transfer.”

    These steps, Fatokun said, would assist the banks, because being able to identify, apprehend and prosecute would go a long way in reducing the problem of electronic fraud.

    On prosecution and apprehension, he said the NeFF is working with the Police to create a dedicated e-Payment and Card Crime Unit, which when operational, would help reduce further, e-fraud.

    He said the operationalisation of a dedicated e-Payment and Card Crime Unit in the Nigeria Police will enable a greater effort in NeFF’s quest to successfully investigate and bring to book through effective and efficient prosecution of cyber-criminals.

    The CBN has also directed banks to establish a database of their customers identified through their BVNs to be involved in confirmed fraudulent activities.

    Besides, the CBN established the Consumer Protection Department (CPD) in April 2012 in furtherance of one of its core mandates to “promote a sound financial system in Nigeria as enshrined in the CBN Act 2007.

    The unit is expected to resolve consumer complaints against financial institutions under the purview of the CBN within two weeks. However, complaints on excess charges and loans must be resolved within 30 days. But not a few customers are unhappy  that many of the e-fraud cases linger for years without resolution.

    It was also in 2012 that the CBN introduced the cash-less policy to ease payment difficulties and promote the use of ATMs, decongest the banking halls and encourage PoS transactions, promote web payment and online transfers as well as mobile banking transactions.

    Also speaking, President, Chartered Financial Accountants (CFA) society, Banji Fehintola, said that banking thrives on trust and such trust must be sustained by bankers at all times.

    He said: “If the people who have the capital do not believe that you have the competence and professionalism to invest or keep their money in a proper way, then there is a problem. And that is the reason why ethics is very important.”

    Fehintola described fraud in the banking sector as an indication of decadence.

    He said: “Fraud by any standard is misconduct, by professionals. As a banker, you have fiduciary duties to build trust with the depositors, because they bring money to you because they trust you. If you misplace that trust, the banking industry suffers and the economy begins to suffer.

    “Technology has moved on. Banking has moved to mobile phones. I personally haven’t been to the banking hall in months. I do all my banking through my phone. But technology has its own ills. The case of Mrs. Umoh is an example of where technology can also have problems.”

    “Obviously, fraudulent people will always find their way around technological apps and try to breach the controls for their own benefits. My hope is that if people understand the value of being ethical, being fraudulent or manipulating technology to defraud will not even cross their minds. If that happens, then we have an industry that thrives on trust.”

    Fehintola noted that fraud in the banking industry will continue because ‘people will always be people’.

    Mrs. Umoh’s passionate appeal for justice was heartbreaking. She said: “There is need for justice for victims of online fraud who are equally oppressed by banks, because they seem so little and powerless against the huge corporate might of these banks.

    “I demand for justice in relation to Diamond Bank, for all that I have laboured for, which have been unfairly taken from me through one of its services, for which it is avoiding to take responsibility. I demand justice for the shoddy and non-cooperative way in which I have been treated by the bank thus far.”

    But the question on the lips of many is will Mrs. Umoh and other bank customers who have suffered in the hands of banks’ fraudsters ever get justice? Only time will tell.

     

  • Banking with tears … Tales from e-payment customers

    Banking with tears … Tales from e-payment customers

    Bank customers are embracing e-payment channels, given their speed and cost-saving benefits. But the gains of digital banking are turning into pains and outright loss of funds for many. The rising cases of e-fraud, insider abuses and poor quality of service are frustrating those using alternative banking channels, such as Point of Sale (PoS), Automated Teller Machines (ATM) cards and  mobile banking Apps. COLLINS NWEZE captures the experiences of some customers. 

    Despite getting more interesting by the day, banking has its pains and shortcomings. Think of cell phone-based banking which is getting transactions done within seconds and bringing millions of the unbanked people into the mainstream financial system.

    Transactions in the banking halls had dropped by 25 per cent in the last one year, as more customers embrace e-payment. But, mobile banking and many e-payment channels have brought pains and tears to bank customers.

    One of such customers is Mrs. Idongesit Umoh, who operates a company account with Diamond Bank Plc. She lost N2.1 million within 30 minutes to fraudsters.

    Mrs. Umoh, an entrepreneur and Managing Director of Idong Harrie Limited, is currently at war with her lender, Diamond Bank Plc. She is seeking a full refund of the money to save her footwear business from collapse.

    Although the bank has unmasked the identities of the fraudsters through their Bank Verification Numbers (BVNs), recovering the fraud proceeds has been stalled since June 7, when the incident occurred.

    Mrs. Umoh said of his ordeal: “I run a micro small business called Idong Harrie Limited. We manufacture and retail handmade footwear and accessories using genuine leather and African fabrics for men, women and children. A few months ago, I got shortlisted by the Mandela Washington Fellowship as one of the 101 outstanding young leaders in Nigeria to undergo six-week training in the United States (U.S.). I decided to go to my bank – Diamond Bank Plc – to request for Personal Travel Allowance (PTA) for the trip.”

    The customer said she wanted to request for $400 PTA but a bank official suggested she request for $3,000, which she did to enable her make some purchases for her factory while in the U.S.

    On the fateful day, Mrs. transferred N1.5 million to her account with the Diamond Bank to enable her secure the PTA. She was told that her password was invalid while trying to log in to her Diamond Bank Mobile App. The failure of the second attempt prompted her to contact the bank official who advised her to re-activate her Mobile App.

    It was in that process that her password was requested, and when she supplied it, the password was for the second time declared invalid. At that point, the customer was further advised by phone by a bank staff to visit the bank’s branch.

    Unfortunately, less than five minutes after the call, she got a text message. Umoh narrated: “When I checked, it was a Diamond Bank message showing a N100, 000 transaction. I assumed it was a payment from a customer, which I was expecting. I then instructed my workers to start work on the customer’s order in the assumption that she had paid. A few seconds later, more texts came in and I saw they were still from Diamond Bank.

    “I noticed that the texts were debit alerts and the names coming with them were strange. I said to myself that if Diamond Bank wanted to debit the money for the PTA, they won’t do so in tranches.

    It immediately occurred to me that my account had been hacked, and I called the customer service, while simultaneously rushing to the bank.”

    Continuing, she said: “I got through to customer care and instructed them to block my account. I was in the banking hall when more debit alerts kept coming in, and all attempt to get the customer service officer to block my account and stop further debits failed.

    “My account was cleared of N2.1 million within 30 minutes. Since June, I have been going back and forth with the bank over this issue. In July, they refunded N668, 000 and closed the case. I was shocked at how unconcerned they were about my situation,” she stated.

    Mrs. Umoh said the bank has refused to take responsibility for the fraud, prompting her to seek legal redress. She claimed not to be an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) card user and that her cheque book was locked up safe and her token secured as at the time of the incidence.

    She said: “I didn’t click on any suspicious link like the bank has claimed. I always go to the bank or call customer care if I had any issue with my banking transactions. No one knew of the transaction I was making in relation to the PTA procurement except the bank officials handling the transaction. How can I put money in a bank and the next day it is gone,” she lamented to The Nation.

     

    Independent findings

     When contacted, Diamond Bank Plc said it will not comment on a matter that is already in court. But independent investigations from an insider in the bank who pleaded for anonymity, confirmed Mrs. Umoh operates an account with the Onikan branch of the bank.

    The source also confirmed that the customer had in June, tried to log on Mobile App but her password was declined. The sources also confirmed that Mrs. Umoh called the bank’s Contact Centre and was advised to visit the branch for password reset, but only visited the next day.

    “Umoh said she noticed a message on her phone but did not bother to check as she was busy, but got worried when alerts kept dropping on her phone. She then tried calling the Contact Centre on her way to the Ogunlana Branch, Surulere, Lagos. And the alert kept coming even while she was on her way to the branch. When she got to the branch, she lodged her complaint but unfortunately all funds had been fraudulently moved before the staff could block the accounts,” the source said.

    Further investigations showed that the customer was later called by the bank on June 8 to confirm what happened. The lender promised to investigate and recover the funds.

    The source narrated: “The complaint was investigated on June 8, 2017 and concluded on July 10, 2017 but the recommendations were only sent to the branch July 17, 2017 for implementation. The customer was advised the next day.

    “The bank found out that the customer compromised her login details –Personal Identification Number (PIN) during a device change. However, during customer’s visit to the branch, she confirmed that she received registration codes on her mobile phone. The customer was advised via a letter dated July 18, 2017 of the outcome of the investigation and also that the bank was able to secure funds moved to other accounts in the bank over N600, 000 and this was to be credited to the customer’s account.

    “The bank also informed the customer by writing that some other monies were being traced at other banks while the investigation continues. This letter was received and acknowledged by her relative as she was out of the country and sent to her via email as requested seeing she was out of town at that time”.

    The source went on: “the bank had a meeting with the customer in the third week of August during which she insisted that she did not compromise her login details alleging that the insider, who had advised her to buy $3,000 PTA, could have connived with fraudsters to defraud her.”

    On the step taken after the latest claim on PTA purchase, the source said: “We carried out a second level investigation on this and confirmed that the teller or the bank is not liable. The customer was verbally informed of the second investigation outcome and she threatened to use other means to recover the funds, insisting that the bank was to refund her entire money.

    “The bank called the customer first week in September, to inform her that efforts were still being made to get the funds transferred from other banks that they were able to hold. She requested for the details of the beneficiaries. The beneficiaries’ names and amounts transferred were given to her.

    “The bank called the customer again between the last week in August and the second week in September, 2017 to provide updates on the recovered funds and she said that the bank should be able to track down the other beneficiaries at-large using their BVNs as they are not ‘ghosts’.

    “She was assured that the matter was not over and the bank would continue to trace and work with the authorities to recover what they could. She gave the bank an ultimatum that she would go ahead with legal action on the bank if her funds were not returned completely by mid-October. The matter is now in court. She served the bank legal papers on the 14th of September, 2017 and as such, the bank could not make an official statement at this time as it would be sub judice,” the source disclosed.

    Another Lagos-based bank customer, Sanya Oni, who was debited N10, 000 twice for a single transaction by FirstBank took his complaints to the Consumer Protection Department of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) after the Tier-1 lender failed to resolve the matter.

    A copy of a letter to the CBN unit, which was received by Mohammed Maryam Ndume, was sighted by The Nation. FirstBank was also copied in the mail. The customer wrote: “After series of representations to operatives of the First Bank of Nigeria to no effect, I am constrained to formally report to the apex monetary authority on my travails with FirstBank in the course of a routine PoS (Point of Sale) transaction.

    “On Tuesday, October 10, 2017, I attempted to reload my electricity pre-paid meter (Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company) via my ATM card in the sum of N10, 000.  I could not get through as the payment machine returned ‘transaction declined’ message. Nonetheless, I got a Short Message Service (SMS) alert on my FirstBank account showing my account had been debited. The transaction finally sailed through on a second trial the next day. Unfortunately, every effort made to get the bank to reverse the value of the abortive transaction done the day earlier has met with frustrations.”

    According to Oni, the bank gave him conflicting information on time of resolution, and has failed to reverse the transaction till date.

    Responding, the customer Complaints Unit, FirstBank, in an emailed report, acknowledged receipt of the complaint, which has been ‘lodged through the appropriate channels against the acquirer’.

    It said: “Enquires show that the disputed transaction was successfully processed from FirstBank to the distribution company and further investigation based on your insistence, a further inquiry was made and was declined by the distribution company with the attached receipt as proof. Seeing that you carried out the same transaction on October 12, 2017, we will investigate this with the acquirer and provide feedback within 10 working days’.

    Unfortunately, the complaint is yet to be resolved over one month after the transaction was done.

    Michael Azuka, an Abuja-based businessman lost N200, 000 in one day to fraudsters. The incidence occurred in mid-February after he activated his internet banking platform, obtained a token, chose a password. Until the disaster struck, all his transactions, including bills payment, cash transfers, and balance enquiries, among others, were done via mobile banking.

    “I kept receiving text messages of multiple debits from my bank. The first was N50, 000 followed by another N100, 000 and finally N50, 000 alerts. These happened within two hours and all the calls to my bank to stop the fraudsters were not answered,” he explained.

     

    •To be continued

  • Tears as The Nation’s man goes home 

    Tears as The Nation’s man goes home 

    • Senator Abe mourns

    Tears and anguish yesterday enveloped Omuordu community of Ubima, Ikwerre Local Government Area (LGA) in Rivers state as the remains of a correspondent of The Nation newspapers, Precious Dikewoha were laid to rest.

    Dikewoha, the paper’s  correspondent in Rivers, died in Port Harcourt, the state capital, on September 4 following a brief illness.

    Pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God  (RCCG) Mercy Zone, Reginald Mbah, in a funeral titled “Moment of truth” described death as an inevitable appointment with God.

    Mbah explained life on earth is very brief, irrespective of how long the person lives while eternity is everlasting.

    According to him: “Death is not the end of life. The body will die but man’s spirit will continue to live but in another planet.

    “But this existence is either in heaven or in hell for every living being must someday have face- to- face appointment with God.”

    The ushering unit of Abraham Villa parish of the RCCG, in a tribute, said the deceased worshiped and served God while was alive.

    The men’s department of the church said his death was like amputation in which an arm/hand of the fellowship has been cut off.

    Speaking on behalf of the family, elder brother to the deceased, Blessed-Prince Dike, said the vacuum the death has created in their family can only take God and time to replace.

    He described his brother as a nice person and hard working young man.

    With emotion- laden voice and eyes filled with suppressed tears, he said: “They said in everything we should give God thanks. We thank the Lord. Let just the will of God be done.”

    In a condolence visit to the widow, Mrs. Nkechinyere Precious- Dikewoha, Senator Magnus Abe (Rivers South-East), expressed shock over the death.

    The senator, who was represented by his spokesman, Parry Saroh Benson, described the deceased as an investigative journalist, who achieved so much in his chosen career.

    According to him: “Late Precious Dikewoha was a fine journalist; he was a well-trained journalist.

    “You know that late Precious Dikewoha was an investigative journalist and the much he achieved within the period was because he was properly trained.

    “So, we are going to miss him. We feel the pain of the family and that was why we came to console them. We join in the pain and we pray that God will give them the strength to bear.”

  • Lawmaker buried amid tears

    Lawmaker buried amid tears

    The remains of Kazeem Ademola Alimi, member of the Lagos State House Assembly, were buried yesterday, barely 24 hours after his death.

    He was interred at the Victoria Vaults and Gardens Cemetery at Awoyaya, Ajah.

    Chairman of Council of Imams of Eti Osa Sheikh Afinni Yusuf led the prayers at the burial site.

    The interment was attended by lawmakers, politicians, representatives of royal fathers, residents and others.

    Alimi’s body was lowered into the grave at 2:32pm

    In his sermon, Yusuf said there was no king beside God, adding: “Death is a necessary end and nothing happens without the knowledge of God.”

    Alimi’s widow, Adijat, described his death as painful.

    She said she would miss her husband.

    Speaker Mudashiru Obasa led other lawmakers to the burial.

    Alimi, who represented Eti-Osa State Constituency I in the Assembly, died on Tuesday. He marked his 50th birthday on July 3.

  • In Suleja, tears still flowing after flood incident

    In Suleja, tears still flowing after flood incident

    SEVERAL days after the  flood incident that sacked several communities and killed no fewer than 19 people in Suleja Local Government Area of Niger State last weekend, floods of tears, anguish and pains have continued flowing from the eyes of many residents especially the bereaved families.

    The ugly incident remained the major subject of discussion among the people all through the week as the embattled residents were yet come to terms with the disaster which they described as unprecedented in the history of the area.

    From one part of the area to another, worried residents gathered in small groups discussing the incident in low voices with palpable fears written all over their faces.

    The flood which  started on Saturday night, according to the residents, did not stop until around 9:30 a.m on Sunday. Aside from the dead victims, properties worth several millions of Naira were also reportedly destroyed by the flood.

    Checks showed that there was hardly any community in the area that was not ravaged.

    However, the worst-hit areas  included Kaduna road through Bakin-Iku, Chanchania and Yaro College area, Kantoma, Kuspa, Angwa Gwari, and Angwa Juma. Some buildings collapsed during the downpour, resulting in the death of some of residents while many sustained various degrees of injury. Cars and vehicles parked on the waterways were also not spared as they were moved from their original positions.

    The major victim of the disaster was obviously a carpenter, Saiadu Abubakar, who lost his two wives and six children to the incident.

    According to him, the flood caught him unawares and trapped all his family members. His words:  “The flood led to the collapse of my house and it trapped some of my neighbours and before I could wake up to warn my family members who were fast asleep at the time, my house had already been submerged. When I realised that my 5-rooms apartment had been submerged, I started calling them to join me in getting out of the house before it was too late.

    “We were trapped in the house and there was no way we could escape and run outside because it was very dark and the flood came with full force . I was with one of the children and my two wives , one of my wives has a new born baby and she held tightly to the child and the older one. She was not feeling too well because  it was only a week that she put to bed.

    “Thereafter, the flood became too strong for me to continue to shield my family. Before I knew it, the house had collapsed and the roof fell on us and then came the flood. While this was happening, I held  one of my children in my hand but the flood swept the rest of my family members away.  I did not know the direction it swept them to.”

    In spite of his distressed condition and the sordid darkness that pervaded the environment, Abubakar said  he defied the flood and frantically searched for his missing family members  but to no avail, adding that he would have also have been killed by the flood as it carried him forcefully away from his house and he had to hold on a tree to save himself. He said that all distress calls made out to neighbours brought no help as everyone was busy trying to save members of their household.

    “After the rain had subsided help eventually came. We went to the riverside at about 3am with torch  but we could not find any of my family members . We beat a retreat and went for the first Muslim prayers in the morning. Thereafter, we went back and we found  dead bodies of two  of my family members when the day broke. They were the bodies of one of my sons and the body of his late mother. After that, we also saw additional two dead bodies of my family members, making four. But up till now we have not seen the remaining four.

    ” The names of my two late wives are Shueba and Hajara. While the names of the children Hikma, Musa, Yusuf, Zainab, Asmau and Nana Khadijat . The eldest of the children was a secondary school girl while three of the children were in primary school. Two of them were in pre-nursery class and the new born baby were also affected. I am a carpenter by profession while on the sideline, I also sell tea by the road side to augment my income.”

    One of the neighbours of Abubakar, Jibril Mohammed, confirmed that he heard when they were calling for help but everyone was busy trying to safe their lives and before they could get to them, the rain had wiped them away.

    “The rain started around 12midnight and after some hours, I heard shouts, but I didn’t pay attention. After sometime, I noticed water seeping into my house, so I had to go outside. It was dark but I heard shouts and before I  knew it, I heard the sounds of buildings collapsing everywhere. In the house behind me where the man has two wives and six children, they were all shouting that we should come and help them, we tried our best but we couldn’t because the water was much. After some time, we did not hear their shouts anymore.”

    Another survivor, Fatima Yahaya said that it was her neighbours who saved her. She said she was fast asleep, only for her to hear the sounds of shouting from her neighbours calling her to come out.

    “I think the rain started by 12am. By 2am, I heard my neighbours knocking my door and  calling me to come out because flood was sweeping houses and cars away. When I came out, I saw people swimming to safety. So we held ourselves and swam to safety. It wasn’t easy because I do not know how to swim before but with my neighbours’ help, I was saved.”

    The Nation learnt about two friends who lived in the same room, were also carried away by the flood. One of them was said to have died while the other survived and taken to hospital.

    When our correspondent visited him, he said: “When the flood became too much, we tried to swim to safety, but everywhere suddenly went blank. Later, I saw  myself lying on the ground where I was picked and brought to the hospital.”

    The Director General, Niger State Emergency Management Agency NSEMA, Ibrahim Inga, said out of the 11 people (official figure) who died in the flood disaster, eight bodies had been recovered .

    Inga said four areas in Suleja were badly affected by the  flood adding that the place is currently not habitable for people.

    According to him, 90 houses were destroyed with no fewer than 500 people displaced. The NSEMA boss added that there were possibility of using primary schools in the area as temporary camps for the victims.

    “Niger State government is doing its best to reach out to those affected. First of all, we must provide shelter immediately and other things will follow, ”  he said.

    The  Deputy Governor, Alhaji Mohammed Ketso, who visited the area expressed sadness over the disaster while expressing the condolences of the state government to the emirate council and the families of those who lost their loved ones.

    He called on the emirate and the local government council to carryout sensitization programmes that would enlighten the public about the negative consequences of building on waterways adding that by so doing, the negative effects of unforeseen flooding would be reduced drastically.

    Ketso stated that although God had destined the occurrence of the sad event, the victims were not totally innocent based on the reports he received.

    The deputy governor assured the people of the readiness of the state government to provide assistance and relief materials to them.

  • Wiping the Tears of Crisis Victims

    Wiping the Tears of Crisis Victims

    The last few days in Taraba State were not the best anybody could wish for. Peace, one of the most prized achievements of the present administration in the state, was rudely interrupted with the outbreak of hostilities between herdsmen and farmers in Mambilla – the future home of Africa’s largest hydro electricity power project in Sardauna Local Government Council Area.  Governor Darius Dickson Ishaku who was at the time away in Germany holding consultative meetings with foreign experts on some critical programmes of his administration rushed back home to attend to the problem.

    His intervention even before setting out for home led to prompt deployment of security forces to the trouble spots. This, in turn, helped in quickly dousing the conflict and cutting down drastically the amount of casualties that would have resulted. Even then, those who had hoped to make political gains from the crisis were as usual on duty. They pulled out all the materials in their bags of tricks to keep the embers of fire alive and burning in Mambilla but they failed. The crisis was quickly contained to their frustration and dismay.

    The end of the crisis paved the way early for a critical consultative meeting held in the Executive Council Chambers in Jalingo Saturday, June 24. The meeting called and presided over by Governor Ishaku, had in attendance representatives of all communities, traditional and political leaders from Sardauna Local Government Area. It was five hours of frank discussions that eventually led to far-reaching decisions. Leaders on both sides of the conflict resolved to give peace a chance and pledged to prevail on members of their communities to do so. Governor Ishaku, at the end of the meeting, announced the setting up of two ad hoc bodies – a high-powered 14-member committee to be headed by a traditional ruler and made up of community leaders from the area and a Truth and Reconciliation committee whose members and terms of reference will be announced after the Governor has been appropriately guided by relevant legal authorities. These committees are an addition to the Judicial Commission of Enquiry early announced by Governor Ishaku which has two weeks to submit its report to government.

    These steps taken at the meeting were very well received as welcome relief by participants at the meeting and members of the affected communities in Sardauna Council Area.  Many people who later reacted said the decisions were products of strategic thinking and capable of leading to the achievement of lasting peace in the area. The committees are expected to deal with the very critical issue of land ownership which was the point of emphasis at the meeting as a major remote cause of the crisis. Land – the struggle for it for farming and grazing – is a major cause of the strains in the relations between herdsmen and farmers that eventually culminated in the crisis.

    Over the years population of people who need land for farming has grown tremendously. And so is that of cattle, sheep and goats that also depend on land for grazing. But there has been no corresponding increase in land available to meet these rising needs. The committees will be examining how this conundrum can be resolved so that land could become less a source of conflict and more of prosperity for those who depend on it.

    A few days  later, government took another major step to bring care and succour to victims of the crisis. A government delegation led by the Deputy Governor, Engineer Haruna Manu was in Sardauna Local Government area to sympathise with victims and hand-over relief materials provided by government to them. He visited displaced persons in their temporary places of abode and assured them that government would assist in reintegrating them back into their various communities.

    At the palace of the chief of Mambilla, Manu said the crisis came as a big surprise to the state government because the people of Mambilla are very peace-loving. He told the people that the message he brought to them from Governor Ishaku is that there should be no further outbreak of crisis in the area. “What happened is the work of Satan and it must not be allowed again”, he said. He told a large crowd of people who had gathered before his arrival that many good things were in the offing for Mambilla and therefore “you must avoid anything that could hinder those good things from coming.”

    On Sunday June 25, an important political personality from the state, Alhaji Shuaibu Isa Lau, who was a few days earlier declared winner of the 2015 senatorial election in Taraba North came calling on Governor Ishaku at Government House, Jalingo. The venue of the reception which attracted a large crowd of supporters of the Senator (designate) was also the Executive Council Chambers. In a speech, Governor Ishaku said he and the new senator share a common experience of having their mandates subjected to long and tortuous judicial scrutiny. He urged the senator designate not to see the time wasted in the process of regaining his mandate as a loss but an experience that would strengthen his resolve to contribute more to the development of the state.

    Deaths in the House

    It was a period of grief for Governor Ishaku, staff of Government House and the entire people of the state. Sylvanus Giwa, senior special assistant to the governor on media and publicity slumped and died Friday June 23. Giwa had reported for duties that day and had just finished supervising the editing of a television documentary he was packaging when he slumped. He died moments later in a Jalingo hospital where he was rushed to. He is survived by his widow and children.

    While the staff of the Government House were still trying to overcome the shock of Giwa’s sudden death, came yet another news of death – that of Danbaba Suntai, former Governor  of Taraba State. Danbaba’s road to his eventual death on Wednesday June 28 is a long one. A plane which he had personally piloted crashed somewhere near Yola Airport in 2012. He sustained brain injuries and had been in and out of hospitals in Nigeria and overseas many times since then. The crash terminated his second tenure as governor abruptly half way. He never fully recovered from the injuries until his recent death.