Ecobank Quiet 18 Months After ‘Branch Manager Stole N2.1m’ From Widow’s Account

Ecobank is yet to help Caroline Oruku, a widow living in Lagos, find the N2,133,922.42 thieves took from her account in March 2023.

FIJ had first reported the matter on May 27.

In May, Oruku narrated to the press how the sum was stolen from her account on March 3, 2023.

“On the day of the incident, I issued two cheque instructions to the Ecobank branch on Allen Avenue, Ikeja, for two transfers to be made to two of my children’s accounts,” Oruku said in a May 23 interview with the press .

“The instruction I gave the bank branch was for it to transfer N25,000 and N20,000, respectively, to them. This means the bank was supposed to transfer just N45,000 in total to the two recipients.”

After the 76-year-old widow sent the instruction to the bank, she said she received a phone call from the branch’s manager.

“The branch manager, a female, then called me to confirm the payments, and I duly gave her the go-ahead to treat the instructions,” said Oruku.

“Shortly after that, I received a second phone call from the same branch manager, this time via another phone number, asking me whether I had received a special code sent to me by Ecobank on my phone.

“When I confirmed I had indeed received a code, the bank manager instructed me to write the code on a paper, describing it as the new PIN that would secure my account, and then hung up.”

She subsequently started receiving strange debit alerts on her phone for the two transactions she had authorised and more she neither authorised nor carried out herself. The debit alerts she received later summed up to N2,133,922.42.

When she immediately visited the branch on the day the fraud was committed, a lady who introduced herself as the branch’s manager attended to her and confirmed that she had placed both phone calls to her. She added that she sensed apprehension in the “branch manager’s” countenance while she spoke with her.

The same “branch manager” then advised her to go home and return to the branch the following Monday for a resolution.

When Oruku returned to the branch the following Monday, however, she met another lady, who also introduced herself to her as the branch manager.

“The “second manager” then said she was not at the branch on the Friday the incident happened. She, however, recognised the first number that had called me to confirm the N45,000 transactions, saying it was hers,” said Oruku.

“She also went on to confirm to me that she only called me to confirm the first two cheque transactions.

“This then meant that the second lady, who I believe works in the same branch, had only impersonated the real branch manager to carry out the fraud.

“I was then asked to dial the second number the fake branch manager had used to call me, but unfortunately, it had been switched off.

“Another surprising act was that the real branch manager also subsequently collected my phone from me and acted as if she wanted to confirm the information on it. It was later on that I discovered that she had collected my phone to delete the fraudulent code that was sent to it.

“This then gave me the impression that there was a possibility both women had connived to steal the money from my account. If not, why would she, I mean the real branch manager, delete the message from my phone?

“Perhaps, they thought because I was old, I would not know.”

After the incident, the widow said she visited Ecobank’s headquarters at Victoria Island to complain, but the senior officials she spoke with were unable to help her recover her money.

When the press sent an email to Ecobank’s customer care unit for a reaction to the allegation on May 23, one of the bank’s officials who did not state her name responded with the following email:

“Thank you for reaching out to us regarding the complaint from Mrs Oruku Caroline Aduniola.

“Due to confidentiality and data protection policies, we are unable to disclose specific information about the customer’s transactions in this regard.

“We are committed to ensuring that all such matters are addressed promptly and appropriately.”

Ecobank had not found the widow’s stolen N2 million at press time, 18 months later.