A shop assistant has been duped right inside a banking hall in Ogun State.
Nojeem Ogundele, who was given money to deposit in the company account with Wema Bank, Ayetoro Brance, Ogun State, handed over the money to someone who presented himself as a bank official.
According to the Punch, the fraudster had first come to announce to a section of the crown that those wishing to make deposits should come inside.
Ogundele and the other customers who had been in the queue for a while were grateful to follow him to a corner of the hall.
The fraudster reportedly gave Ogundele three tellers to fill while he collected the N350,000 from him and disappeared.
Ogundele is now accusing the bank of nonchalance in helping him to retrieve the money. The incident reportedly happened around 1 pm on October 12 when Ogundele’s boss, Obi Emmanuel, sent him to deposit the money into a business account.
Ogundele said, “Last week, my boss sent me to deposit N350,000 at the Aiyetoro branch of Wema Bank and when I got there, customers were many outside the bank.
“A man suddenly came out of the bank and told the security men that they should let those of us who wanted to deposit huge sums of money into the bank.
“After I entered, the same man came to me and asked how much I wanted to deposit and when I told him, thinking he was a bank official, he gave me three tellers and told me to fill in the details. I was waiting for the signed copies from the bulk room and when it was taking too long, I raised the alarm.”
It was gathered that the bank’s closed-circuit television camera captured the suspect’s face, but the bank denied he was a worker. The case was reported at the Aiyetoro Police Station by Nojeem’s boss, who complained that the bank and the police were foot-dragging on the matter.
Emmanuel said, “Since we reported the case to the police, both the bank and the police have not done much to ensure I get my money. I am just a small businessman and that money means a lot to me. “We later learnt that this kind of a thing has been happening recently in that bank.”
The bank’s branch manager, Sharafadeen Awayeti, confirmed the incident, but claimed Ogundele might have been hypnotised.
He said, “First, the man in question wore native attire and aside from Fridays, we don’t wear native clothes to work. Also, this is not the boy’s first time of depositing money for his boss in our bank, so we feel that he may have been hypnotised by the criminal who made away with the money. We gave all necessary assistance to the police when they came here to investigate and since investigation is ongoing on the matter, let’s wait for them to conclude their work.”
