An account holder with Access Bank, Ofegobi Ofegobi Ofem Balinwo, has narrated how $14, 380 was illegally withdrawn from his account by Access Bank.
Balinwo maintains a domiciliary account No: 0693951087 with the bank, and sometime in 2016, his account was inadvertently credited twice in a duplicated transaction, according to a report by calitown.com
The report said that “following this ‘system error’ of the bank, Ofegobi was goaded into making refunds of the duplicated sum of $92,762.51, over a period of time.
“The entire refund was done on 12th August, 2016, leaving him with no liabilities.”
The report continued: “While Ofegobi thought all was clear, something happened on September 2, 2016. Despite the refunds made, his account was debited with the sum of $14,380, completely emptying his account.
“Baffled and without the right answers in place, he contacted the bank seeking explanations.
“This contact yielded nothing, prompting him to institute Suit No: HC/99/2017 at the High Court of Cross River State, questioning the bank’s actions.
“Three years after he instituted the suit and the ensuing trial at the High Court in Calabar, presided over by the Hon. Justice Akon Ikpeme, judgement was delivered on the 10th day of June, 2020 in his favour.
“The High Court held as follows:
“… as at 2nd September, 2016, when the statement of account shows a withdrawal of the entire balance left when the Claimant had fully refunded the amount wrongfully paid to him, this court finds no justification for that in the absence of a court order and therefore reiterates that the withdrawal was not justified by law and therefore it was wrong and constitutes a breach of the Defendant’s duty to the Claimant.”
The court further held that;
“This court noted that DW1 on the 22nd of October, 2019, admitted under cross-examination that CW1 had fully paid back with the open market value of the dollar. It is based on the above analysis, this court finds and holds that the claimant has by preponderance of evidence proved that the Defendant breached her duty of care to him when she emptied his account of the balance therein as indicated in Exhibit 9 without a court order or authorization from him thereby depriving him of access to his said account”.
“Following the judgement, Access Bank PLC appealed in Appeal No: CA/C/353/2020 between Access Bank PLC vs Ofegobi Ofem Balinwo.
“On the 29th of April, 2025, the Court of Appeal allowed the appeal and held that the Respondent (Ofegobi) did not present his cheque for payment when he was free from encumbrance.
“The appeal court further held that the debiting of $14,485.92 was a “reversal” without any clarity on what kind of reversal could occur in an account that was unencumbered at the time of the illegal debit.
“After the judgement, Ofegobi approached the bank to access his $14,485.92 but still met his account on $0.000 balance.
“The big question Access bank needs to answer now is, where is the $14,485.92 that was in the account of Ofegobi and which was debited on 2nd September, 2016 with the narration “Reversal”?”
“Ofegobi told www.calitown.com that the money is his gratuity, earned from working with the World Bank as an Administrative and Finance Associate for 16 years.”
A senior staff member in the Calabar branch of the bank informed us that the branch could not comment on the matter. He said “only our headquarters can do that, please bear with me.”
But a report on the development by NATIONAL WAVES, said effort to speak to Olakunle Aderinokun, Head, Media Relations, Access Bsnk, fell through.
The report said that calls to his line were not answered, and he had yet to respond to a message sent to him on the matter as of press time.
